


The Danger ABC's

by flakypie



Category: Magisterium Series - Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
Genre: AU, Aaron is a fluffball, Angst, Borderline Personality Disorder, Burglary, Call is depressed, Call is sarcastic, Idiots in Love, M/M, No clue where I'm going with this, Slow Romance, Slow To Update, Thievery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:20:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 20,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24161980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flakypie/pseuds/flakypie
Summary: Call is a thief. He likes to think of himself as a nice thief, as a kind of Robin Hood. Steal from the rich, pay dad's rehab bills. Steal from the rich, eat lunch at school today. He sells it all to Rufus at the local pawn shop. Rufus doesn't question where the golden pocket watches come from, doesn't question the designer shoes even though Call is wearing a pair of ratty sneakers that look like they've seen the inside of a paper shredder. Call likes Rufus.On the other hand, call hates Jasper Dewinter, the smug, entitled reporter kid who follows him around with a microphone everywhere he goes.Call is friendless, a nobody, a recluse. Until goody-two-shoes Aaron Stewart pulls Call over to his table and he's magically popular. Call thinks he hates Aaron, too, at first. Why else would he turn red every time Aaron gave him a high five?And as much as Call HATES this new, -ugh- popular friendship group, he can't bear to leave it. Even after a series of close calls that threaten his very existence.
Relationships: Callum Hunt/Aaron Stewart
Comments: 64
Kudos: 51





	1. No *Bad* Deed Goes Unpunished

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Taely55](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taely55/gifts), [multidimensionallifeform](https://archiveofourown.org/users/multidimensionallifeform/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Nearly Witches](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9814769) by [multidimensionallifeform](https://archiveofourown.org/users/multidimensionallifeform/pseuds/multidimensionallifeform). 



> OK GUYS AAAAAH I'M REALLY EXCITED TO MAKE SOME CALRON UP IN HERE!!!! WOOOO!!! Ok so I finally decided after much deliberation to acc put my notes in the notes section so you guys can separate my ranting from the acc summaries. I got SO MUCH INSPIRATION!!! I have good feelngs about this.
> 
> Also I named Call's alter ego Jack after Jack the ripper even though Call obvs doesn't murder anyone. (just some trivia) (there may be a quiz later on)
> 
> Also, I'm gonna drop sometime soon (and by soon I mean in the next year) a one shot book where YOU, the readers, can request fandoms/fics. Keep in mind this is with stuff I can write, so as I watch more stuff my universes will expand. So go check it out if you have fic ideas! It will take me a while to write probably, but hey... flaky's in the name -my new slogan-

Call slammed his fist into the mirror, creating a loud noise and a large crack he should probably fix eventually. Ow. That really hurt. A lot. But it accomplished its goal, which was to snap him out of the spiral of self-hatred he was slowly slipping down into. Sometimes, (most of the time if he was honest) Call hated just looking at himself. The concept of his face revolted him. Not because it wasn't a nice face. As far as faces go, Call wasn't going to say he was unattractive. It was just the things he did with that face that he was revolted by. The things he'd seen, watching helplessly as the face that wasn't quite his contorted into the face of Jack. Jack was coldhearted. Jack wasn't call. Call could never do any of the things Jack did every night.

Call tried to focus his mind back to the task at hand, which happened to be self motivation. 

"It's ok, Call. They can afford it. Do it for your dad. Your dad needs you. And maybe stop talking to a mirror, while you're at it." then the realization dawned on him that he had just punched a mirror. 

"You maniac! You know you could go to jail for mirror abuse!" Then, call laughed because he could go to jail for many, many things worse than that. It was time. He put on the mask, and let Jack take over. 

It was dark. It was always dark, when Jack went out, but this night was pitch black, and he could almost feel the darkness encapsulating him, blending him into the atmosphere. Call hated the dark. Jack loved it. Pelham street. Pelham and 5th. Slip in through the window, grab what you can, get out. He climbed the fence with ease, landing softly on his feet when he hit the ground. Jack laughed. Child's play. Call was terrified. For some reason, rich people always wanted the best. Jack tapped the drainpipe lightly to make sure it was metal. It was. Slowly, softly, Jack worked his way to the window frame. Windows were harder. Windows required finesse. After a few moments, however, the window slid open soundlessly, leaving Jack in an empty parlor that smelt like Cubans. A watch here, some jewelry there. Nothing extravagant, nothing they would immediately notice. Fill in the gaps around the missing things so that it seemed like they were never taken. The problem with rich people, Jack thought, is that they have too many things. If there was less in here, they would know. Call just crawled farther back inside his mind that he almost didn't realize that he had already left.

He checked the time on his watch. 3:03 AM. School was at 8:00, and he still didn't finish his Trigonometry worksheet. Stupid homework. Stupid dad. Stupid money. 

-five grueling hours later-

He was late. Again. He, Callum Hunt, was late. Maybe no one would notice? Maybe there would be some other poor soul who was late to Miss Rajavi's math class? No, just him. Of course it was just him. Call was snapped out of his thoughts by the blinding flash and the quick click of a camera shutter. 

"Jasper I swear to god if you take one more picture of me I'll shove that camera so far up your-"

"Well, well, well, look who decided to actually show up to Math class."

"Ms. Rajavi I can explain-"

"Just sit down and maybe if you did the homework I won't mark you down as late."

"It was _three_ minutes!"

"Hunt."

"Ok, ok I get the point." Call grabbed the crumpled sheet of homework at the bottom of his bag and handed it to the teacher, making sure to give Jasper the meanest glare he could muster as he walked to his seat. Irritatingly, Ms. Rajavi had moved him to the front of the class the fifth time he fell asleep in math class, so no more morning naps for Call, which meant less sleep, worse grades, and more time studying, and in some bizarre chain reaction meant that he had to stop eating lunch for the time being. Even worse, he was sat down to Aaron Stewart, who somehow managed to pull off popular jock and teacher's pet in one aggravatingly annoying package. At some point the teacher had started talking, and Call had to try to put on his best "I'm listening" face whilst trying not to fall asleep.

"Ok class, it's time to share three things you learned this lesson with the person next to you. After that, you need to complete the examples on the worksheet and submit it to me for marking. Remember, one person should _not_ be doing all the work and laziness will _not_ be tolerated." Oh, god. Aaron turns to him with a signature, stupid, ear-to-ear grin and starts spouting a stream of words Call can't even begin to comprehend in his tired, decaffeinated state. 

"I learned that you can use the sine and cosine rules to figure out lengths and angles in non-right angled triangles, and that you need... Are you ok dude?"

"Yeah."

"Wait, did you get the lesson? You look kinda... confused." The look of genuine concern on his face would be touching if Call liked him even a bit.

"I mean, I spent most of the lesson chewing my pen, but I think I get the premise."

"Ok, name _one_ thing you learned today."

"Um, triangles have signs? And angles?"

"Wow, ok we're going to have to start with the basics."

"We?"

"I mean, we have to complete the assignment, obviously. So I need to teach you how to do it!" The grin that somehow manages to spread even farther across his face makes Call want to go full on Oscar the Grouch and jump in the nearest trash can.

"I'm good. Why don't _you_ do the assignment, and _I'll_ sit here and take a nap."

"Um... no."

The next ten minutes were somehow both the longest and the shortest of Call's life. 

"I think... I think I actually get it."

"Well that's good because I was flat out of ideas if that one failed."

"Ok, class. We're going to be starting a project for the next couple of weeks." Call swore he could hear the collective sigh of despair.

"Everyone gets to choose their partners... Except I want Call to work with Aaron."

"WHAT."

"Since Aaron managed to make you understand something for once, I want you two to work together. Is that clear?"

"But Ms. Rajavi!"

"Yes, Callum?"

"It's Call. And I can't work with him!" 

"Why not?"

"He'll drive me certifiably insane?"

"That's the point." And with that, the bell rang, and Call rushed out of the room because it was Study, and he could finally take a nap.

Call took his regular seat in the back of the room, laid back, and closed his eyes, thankful that Jasper wasn't in this class to bother him anymore.

If Call was being honest, he dazed through the majority of science and napped through History, but most of his other teachers had the courtesy to let him sleep and the intuition not to ask many questions. So Call was almost surprise when the bell rang for History and it was time for lunch. 

Call didn't have any lunch, this particular day, so he just sat at his usual corner table, and went over the pages from the classes he'd missed. 

"Call!" Oh god, what now. Call looked up from his Science textbook to see none other than Aaron Stewart, who was drawing more attention than Call was comfortable receiving. 

"Come sit with us, so we can discuss our project!" On the one hand, it meant doing math for the rest of lunch. On the other, it meant the less time he had to spend with Aaron outside school, the less chance he could ever find out.

"Ok." Aaron's expression changed to one of mild shock, as if he assumed Call would shrug him off. Then, Call heard a noise he never wanted to hear for the rest of his life. Click.

"JASPER!" Call slammed the textbook closed with a bang and jumped to his feet.

"Calm down, man, It's just a picture."

"Oh, yeah, and coffee is just a beverage. It's a violation of my first amendment rights, is what it is."

"Coffee is a beverage though!" Call was surprised at how loud his own gasp was.

"Ok, I would love to debate why coffee is fantastic and you're an idiot, but I really need to focus on the task at hand, which happens to be beating Jasper to a pulp."

"But you'll get in trouble!"

"Does this look like the face of a person who cares?" Call snapped.

"Yes. It's one photo. Let it go, dude."

"Fine. But only because we have a project to work on."

As soon as Call sat down at the table, he knew he was horribly out of place. Tamara Rajavi was Ms. Rajavi's daughter, and one of the more popular kids in the school. Everyone said she and Aaron were dating. Oh no. No, no, no, no no.

"I can't sit with him!"

"Well you said that about working with me and here we are."

"Fine. As long as he doesn't take any pictures."

"Deal."

"You can't say 'deal' if you're not me, Aaron!" Jasper said.

"And you can put your camera down for one lunch! Why do you even photograph Call in the first place, anyway?"

"There's something strange about him."

"I'm right here, guys."

"And let's not forget we need to actually eat before the bell rings for fifth. Tamara Rajavi, by the way. Nice to meet you." she says, offering her hand.

"Uh, thanks. I'm Call."

For all of Aaron's offer to work on the project, they were surprisingly unproductive.

"Wait, you don't have lunch?" Aaron said sympathetically.

"Oh, I uh... forgot it. I'll just eat at home."

"Dude, no. Take my mac n' cheese."

"I can't eat your lunch!"

"You can, and you will. I can just get another one anyway, I brought extra today."

"Thanks." Call could have sworn right then and there that that mac n' cheese was the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted. One bite quickly turned into 2, then 4, then 8...

"Slow down there a little, you're going to choke on your food!" Tamara said with an air of concern.

"Sorry, I uh, didn't have time to eat breakfast today."

"This must be a really bad day for you."

"It's kind of normal for me, actually."

"Why don't your parents remind you?" Aaron asks.

"They just don't."

"But if they reminded you then maybe-" Call gatches Tamara's 'don't pry Aaron' look and nods at her appreciatively.

"So anyway," says Aaron, bubbly as ever, "when should we meet up to work on the project? Tamara's working with Jasper, so I hope you don't mind if we all work together." The hopefulness in his expression almost makes Call willing to put up with Jasper's antics.

"Ok. Um, how about before school on Tuesdays?" Call suggests, wondering how on earth he's supposed to show up _before_ school on Tuesdays."

"I was thinking at my house, afterschool on Fridays, since we get out early?" Fridays were when Call visited the pawn shop, but he could always change that. 

"Yeah, ok."

"That works for me."

"As long as Jasper doesn't being his camera within a hundred meters of me or my face."

"Alright then! Fridays it is." 

They chatter idly together until the bell rings, and as Call walks to fifth, he almost, just a little tiny bit, feels like he belongs. 


	2. Pawn to A1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Big plot events start moving. This is a key chapter, so uh, pay attention I guess. Call visits the pawn shop and runs into a new face. And please share your feedback or opinions, because it does really help me and motivate me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure my internal monologue these days is just a high-pitched fangirl squeal 24/7. Anyway, enjoy!

That day after school Call did his homework, grabbed his loot from the night before, and stuffed it in his backpack, which could honestly barely be called a backpack anymore. The sides were fraying, showing glints of gold watches, assorted objects, and the blue dress he'd taken. Call wasn't an expert, but when something says Versace, you take it. Especially when It's one of 10 in similar colors, and they won't notice it's gone for a couple of days. This was one of the rare moments when Call and Jack had to mesh, be the perfect mixture of petty thief and average schoolboy. Call was halfway to the pawn shop when suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks. No, no, no, no, no. Why here? Aaron Stewart, walking down the road in a crisp green T-shirt and a pair of jeans, each blonde hair perfectly in place. He wondered how anyone could look so... pristine. It took Call a moment to realize he was staring, and then he blushed. Why was he blushing? Call never blushed, not even when he was embarrassed. Ok, look down at your shoes, and just walk away. Call needed new shoes, too. Suddenly, seeing Aaron made Call's patchwork "aesthetic" seem a lot worse. Why was he worrying about his appearance right now? Did he put on deodorant this morning? That's right, he ran out last week. Just calm down, keep walking and...

"Call!" Aaron said with his award-winning smile.

"Aaron!" Call said, trying his best to echo Aaron's enthusiasm.

"What brings you here, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, just going to uh... swing by... the... uh... laser tag place?" Call was many things, but he was not the best liar.

"Wait. You're telling me I've lived in this town my whole life never knowing there was a LASER TAG place?!" Somehow, Aaron's grin gets even whiter, and for some reason Call is fixated on how perfect his mouth is. Snap out of it, Call.

"Uh... well... I don't know if it's there, I just heard about it and was going to check it out."

"Can I come with you? It sounds really cool."

"Yeah. It might turn out to be nothing, though. FYI." Call could just walk to the Pawn shop, pretend that there was something that interested him, and dissapear while Aaron got bored and left. It was mainly old books and musty things, anyway. For some reason, everything Call brought in was never on display.

They talked on the way there, and Call found himself liking Aaron more and more. Maybe, Call could relax. Maybe Call could finally have a friend, even after all this secrecy.

"Well, it should be right here." Call said, pointing to the facade of the pawn shop.

"That's too bad, sounded fun. Maybe there's one downtown."

"Yeah. I think I saw a book in there, I'm gonna check it out, but you're free to go on your merry way."

"Actually, I might see if they have an antique copy of Moby Dick for my collection." Of course. Of course Aaron Stewart had a collection of antique books. 

So Call poked around a bit, while Rufus the shop keep raised a single bushy eyebrow in Call's direction. After a few minutes, Aaron finally left, and Call realized he'd been holding his breath.

Call walks over to Rufus and dumps the entirety of his bag onto the counter. Rufus grunts nonchalantly and sorts through the items, moving them into a back room. He then counts out the money and hands it to Call. It's more than enough to afford rent and rehab costs, for the next month, anyway. He can even splurge and get himself a new backpack. He folds the money and stores it neatly in his pocket. Suddenly, a figure emerges from the back room of dusty, yellowing books. 

Call was getting bad vibes off this guy the second they made eye contact. His eyes bore into Call, and Rufus was clearly barely abiding his presence.

"Hey, kid." he said, just as Call emerged from the door. Call kept walking.

"Want to make a shitload of money?" Call was interested, now, but he kept walking.

"Look, work for me and you can get 50k a month. I'm serious." 50k? Call stopped and turned around, slowly.

"What do you want."

"I need someone for a job. I'm not gonna lie and say it's dangerous. I need someone disposable. Someone who doesn't ask too many questions. But If you can pull it off I'll give you 50k."

"Why shouldn't I just take whatever the hell it is I'm stealing and run?" The man chuckles, a deep, rumbling, almost maniacal laughter that sends shivers down calls spine and makes the hairs on his arms stand up.

"You aren't stealing something."

"Then what would I be doing?"

"I need you to take someone and bring them to me."

"I don't hurt people."

"Look, kid, I didn't just ask you at random. I've done my digging. I've got more connections than you. And if need be, I'll get your dad kicked out from that pretty little clinic upstate." His tone is cheery, despite the threats he's making.

"I don't hurt people. Not anymore... not after that night."

"The way I see it, you don't have a choice. I'll tell you what. You get half the money, which is easily 70k, or your dad gets out of rehab and does the thing he's been trying to do ever since you put him there. He hates you, you know. After what you did to your mother. I talked with him a little. He thinks you're a monster." 

"Stop."

"He wants to end it all. I told him what you were doing to keep him there and he wants to end it all."

"STOP!" Call barely notices the stares of the people around him, or the tears clouding his vision. All he can see is the blurry face of a monster, reflected in the sunglasses the stranger is wearing. 

"I'll call you on that thing you call a phone in three days with everything you need to know." And with that, he walks off, leaving Call to slump to the ground in disbelief and question everything that he's ever done. 


	3. Shadows in the Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call starts questioning his sexuality, undergoes some destression (depressed stressing) and recieves a call that makes everything about 10 times worse. Also Jasper is a dick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I would really appreciate it if you could comment. Kudos are great, I love all of you guys no matter what. But It's really awesome to see your thoughts and be able to talk to you guys, and it really makes me aware of the community we got going. Also, I am encouraging you to comment because one lucky person/OC will get featured in the next chapter! (It's not gonna be a repetitive feature, but hey, AU you will get to meet Callum Hunt! Because boy do I got some plannnnnns for this fic.
> 
> So if you want to participate in this competition to get you/your OC featured you need to comment:
> 
> 1) good or evil?  
> 2) Name if good, code name if evil.   
> 3) Physical appearance (hair, eyes, skin tone, dress style)  
> 4) Three to 5 words to describe your personality  
> 5) Coffee drinker?  
> 6) Any other thoughts you may have/suggestions.
> 
> 6 things guys. I am asking for like 5 mins or less of your time. You don't have to write an essay, you don't have to include last names. The winner of the contest will depend on:
> 
> a) time only one person answers  
> b) if more than one person answers, which I like best. So go, (after you're done reading my *AMAZING* chapter) and leave a comment!
> 
> You have like 5 days. Maybe more, I don't know. So don't miss it! And if you encountered this after the competition, who knows, we may do something like this again.... Ok I'm done wasting your time. Go forth, my minions. GO FORTH AND CONQUER!!!

He would receive the call today that would change everything. The Call that would undermine every principle he had. Jack was prickling with anticipation. Call was frightened. So when he reached Aaron's beautiful house, looked at the beautiful brickwork, the horrible realization dawned on him that he had been here before, in the icy night. He had taken things from this house. Nothing memorable, nothing that they would notice at first. But he had stolen from the person who had given up his macaroni, and that hurt Call to his very core.

"Are you ok?" Aaron asked with concern in his eyes. Concern Call didn't deserve. He wanted to slap himself, but he choked back the sob forming in his chest and tried his best to sound as if nothing had happened.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just ate a bug." Jasper made a disgusted face, Call shot him a look, and both Aaron and Tamara looked pretty confused. Aaron fiddled with the key from his pocket, brushing the hair from his eyes as he fitted it into the lock. Call's heart was racing, even though no one had seen him. And it got worse the more he looked at Aaron's innocent face, the face that didn't know he was letting a monster in. No. He was Call now. Jack was gone, and he was just the normal, sarcastic schoolboy with a normal home life and a hatred of all things educational.

Call stepped inside, set down his bag, took off his shoes, and tried not to think about how everything seemed too familiar. Failing to ignore a sneer from Jasper at his ratty sneakers, they walked down the hallway into Aaron's room. Call had never been more surprised. Like the rest of the house, Aaron's room was immaculate. But it was bare. A bed, a desk, a bookcase and a closet, with an adjoining bathroom. No ornate vases, no band posters, no photos except a small silver one of him and Tamara on the desk. It was almost like looking at the room of a ghost. A stark contrast to the lavish furnishings of the rest of the house.

"Sorry guys, I just have to get my laptop. You can get set up in the dining room, if you want." So Call followed Tamara, unanswered questions on his lips, to a large, modern dining room filled with a natural glow. He took out his math book, which was about 80 percent scribbles and 10 percent ripped out pages. Tamara looked at the state of his book with disapproval.

"Do you ever actually learn in math class?"

"Yes... kindergarten was so my year." Tamara laughed, and it made Call happy. He reminded himself that he wasn't here to make friends. And that reminded him of other things. He needed to breathe.

"Uh, do you know where the bathroom is?" because it would be weird to know exactly where the bathroom was in a stranger's house.

"Yeah, It's right through there on the left." said Tamara

"Thanks." Just then, (because the universe had it out for him) Aaron walked through the door, carrying what looked like ten math books, a laptop, and a thick binder. And of course he didn't see Call, and of course Call was mentally complaining about his shoes again, and of course Aaron tripping over Call bounced all the books off of Call's face and he was pretty sure his nose was bleeding.

"Oh, god, Call I'm so, so sorry." Aaron said from on top of him.

"Uh, it's fine." Call said, feeling his face heat up.

"You're bleeding!" Aaron said, sitting up to a straddling position before he suddenly realized where he was sitting and turned a deep shade of scarlet.

"I think I have a first aid kit in my bathroom, come on." Aaron said, getting off Call and dragging him by the wrist to the bathroom. Call's heart was pounding, probably because of the near death experience that he'd just had. Aaron wiped the blood off Call's nose, despite his fervent protests that he could do it himself, and Call couldn't stop looking at Aaron's expression. It was almost... motherly, as if Aaron felt some obligation to keep Call safe. Aaron took out a box from underneath the sink and rummaged around in a small box he pulled out before applying Neosporin and a bandage Call was positive was going to fall off in a minute.

"Aaron?" Aaron looked up at Call, and Call wondered how anything could be so green.

"Yeah?"

"You have no idea what you're doing, do you?" Aaron burst out laughing, and so did Call. When the laughter finally died down, Tamara yelled from the dining room: "Are you two going to come out of there sometime in the next eight years, or are you just going to live in the bathroom?!"

"I don't know, there's really good Wifi in here!" Call yelled back.

"We should probably leave the bathroom before Tamara decides to come kill us." Aaron said.

"Yeah, our project isn't gonna do itself."

" _Our_ project?"

"You heard Ms. Rajavi."

When they got back to the dining room, it seemed like Tamara and Jasper had already done half the work. Aaron's books were still all over the floor, so a half hour into their study time they had sat down, almost broken Call's nose with a half-pound geometry book, and picked up what seemed like a million books off the floor. Fortunately, Aaron was a fast worker, and by the time Call had to leave for dinner, (instant ramen and a cup of instant coffee) they had gotten a good chunk of research done. And although if you had asked him he would have denied it, Call was having... fun. 

"Thanks for having me, Aaron."

"You sure you can't stay for dinner? We're having pizza." Call's stomach grumbled at the thought of delicious pizza, but he remembered the phone call he was due to receive today, and he didn't want to be around anyone else when it happened. He would have to be Jack for that, and Call needed to separate him and Jack as much as possible. 

"Sorry, I still need to do the history homework."

"Ok, well, see you next week I guess." Aaron's tone was cheerful, but there was a disappointed look in his eyes.

"See you next week." Call walked through the dim streets, wishing he had said yes. He was surprised to find that his house was only a ten-minute walk from Aaron's house. Then, there was nothing to do but wait. And homework. But mainly wait. And ramen. But also, waiting. Then, the cracked flip phone buzzed out its tinny ringtone.

"Hello?"

"Listen. I am the Enemy. In three days, my assistant will drop off a package containing everything you need to complete the abduction. There will also be two keys, and an address. The address will lead you to a soundproofed room with a car in it. You will use the car to take the abductee to the soundproof room, where you will receive another call with further information. At no point will you ever address me during this second phone call. You will complete further instructions from there. If you hear the police, you will burn all materials before taking the abductee into a smaller hidden compartment. If you have any questions, you will ask them to my assistant. Write nothing down. Tell no one anything. And if you make even the slightest mistake, your father is as good as dead."

"Who am I supposed to be kidnapping?"

"All in good time, all in good time."

"What the fu-"

Click.

Callum Hunt knew three things. One, he was a thief. Two, he liked coffee. And three, no way in hell was he going to sleep that night.


	4. Life is Strange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call reminisces, goes to Walmart, and gets stopped by a random person with a better moral compass than he has.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to AnaBrooke0 for making this chapter happen! I promise, the calron is just around the corner... you just gotta hold out. Also for some strange reason I made Call even more angsty and depressed than usual.

Despite being completely exhausted, Call managed to get a decent amount of work done. Work seemed to dominate Call's life, schoolwork, homework... other work. But Call was so close to finishing high school. Then, it would just be a matter of time before he could get a job. Once he got back his dad's shop, everything would be good. His father would be better, his father would be normal again. Call drifted into a half-asleep haze, barely acknowledging the thoughts in his head. 

Then again, he and his father had never really had a normal relationship. Some days, his father hadn't even left the couch, a bottle in his hand, the knuckles gripping the neck white and shaking, the lips muttering one name over and over, eyes glued to the kitchen sink piled high with dirty dishes. Those days got far more frequent as time went on. Some days, however, his dad would show him how the engine worked, the different tools, how to fix up anything from a car to a music box. His father's hands were magic, and Call still had some little clockwork figures his father had made for him as a child. Those days got farther and farther apart, until one day, they stopped altogether. 

His father went to the doctor, once. He got some medication, and at first Call thought things could finally go back to the way they were before, he could stop going to the food bank on Thursdays and lying to the manager about where his father was. But it only made things worse. He kept drinking, and he just got angrier. He never hit Call, not once. But the day he got close, Call knew he had to do something. So Callum Hunt, at 14 years, struck out on his own and shakily grabbed a knife from the kitchen. He wasn't smart, not back then. He didn't go far from home, he lurked in alleys, and he wasn't prepared to run. The first time he got money, it seemed like so much. But then Call learned about the unpaid bills and the piled eviction notices. He tried to keep the garage afloat, but it was too much. He couldn't watch his dad and get enough money, and the school was starting to get suspicious of all Call's absences. His few friends drifted away, one by one, until all that was left was a pile of debt.

One night, Call got too close. It was impulse, more than anything. He had a phone, he was going to call the cops. Call would have lost everything. He wanted to close his eyes and forget. But Call couldn't seem to scrub that night from his mind. After that, he rented out the garage. It wasn't a lot, and he was pretty sure what he was doing was illegal, but it paid the rent and part of the clinic bill. He visited, at first. Then, Call realized how little 400 dollars was, and he suddenly had a lot less time on his schedule. 

Call groaned and chugged down a cup of coffee. He was fine, he thought to himself. He was so, so close to tying up all the loose ends. What was it that he said? 50k? 70? That could cover everything until Call finished high school. One night, one broken rule, and it would fix all his problems. Besides, it wasn't like he really had a choice. Whoever this guy was, he was a professional. Call looked at the cracked screen of his watch, and then remembered the batteries were dead. He looked at the clock on the wall, then mentally added 2 hours onto the time. Shit. It was gonna be close. Then he realized that he could do the thing he'd wanted to do for ages.

Call entered the Walmart with a smile on his face. Which was unusual, considering Call rarely smiled. He got a cart and half-rolled down the aisle, grabbing not one, but _two_ sticks of deodorant. A black backpack, some high top sneakers, and finally... Call stopped and stared in awe at the colossal wonder before him. Call had been staring at this thing for weeks, wishing he could afford it. But now, he realized, he could. Call hefted a dark blue bike off of the rack and rolled it to the beverage aisle, where Call bought 5 bags of instant coffee. He felt unstoppable. By the time Call cart-rolled into the checkout with his mighty steed resting atop his cart, the cart was completely full and Call was wondering how the hell he was going to get all of this stuff back to his house. The cashier raised a single eyebrow in a Rufus-like fashion, and Call dumped a roll of assorted bills on the counter with a satisfying thwack. 

Call rolled the cart out of the sliding doors and deliberated for a moment. On the one hand, if he stole the cart, in broad daylight, he would probably get yelled at by some random stranger. On the other hand, Call didn't really care all that much. Call was almost out of the parking lot and calculating the time it would take him to get home and then bike to school when a loud, commanding voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Hey you!" Call turned his head to see a girl that could have been the cover off of a vintage fashion magazine. Why this surprisingly accurate representation of early 19th century culture was running towards him at an alarming rate, he had no idea. Until he realized he was kind of, sort of, a little, stealing a shopping cart from a Walmart in the early-ish hours of the morning. Call promptly ignored the girl, and continued rolling away from the Walmart and all of its strange customers. He couldn't avoid this girl, however, because she stopped the cart dead in its tracks with a surprising amount of force considering the heels on her shoes. Most people would mind their own business and let a perfectly ordinary teenage boy roll away with a shopping cart full of random household items. This _maniac_ , however, was so determined to stop any semblance of Call's happiness that she stopped his one chance at escaping human interaction. 

"What." Call said bluntly, more than a little annoyed.

"You're stealing." she said, in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I've got my receipt right here." Call said, hoping she'd take the hint and go away.

"That doesn't give you license to take the cart!" She protested. 

"Do you like coffee?" Call said, resorting to extremes.

"Well, yes, but what does that have to do with..." her train of thought derailed as Call painfully held out one of his five coffee boxes. 

"Look, I don't know your name-"

"Forza."

"Or why in god's name your eyes are purple-"

"They're l _avender._ And none of your business."

"Or why you're so intent on stopping my cart-"

"It's stealing." Call sighed and put the coffee back in the cart wearily.

"Look. I don't know you, you don't know me. I'm going to return this cart as soon as I get my stuff out of it and into my house. I'm not going to prove it, because I can't. I don't want to start out the week by being late for school, and I'm sure as hell not gonna be late from some girl-"

"Forza."

"Fine. 'Forza'. Can you let me go, so I can law-abidingly ride this shopping cart home?"

"Fine. But _only_ if you promise to return the cart."

"Yeah, sure."

"Say it!"

"Ok, ok, _I promise._ " And with that, the girl- Forza, Call mentally corrected, let go of the cart, and Call rolled back to his house with something hinting at a smile.

When Call walked into math class Monday morning, the whole class stared at him. Partly, because he wasn't in a horrible mood. Partly, because Call had clothes that were actually intact. But mainly, because Call was _on time._


	5. Gay is a state of mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call learns something new about himself and desperately attempts to commit a felony, while Aaron, and Tamara are confused and Jasper is a jackass. Also, I'm pretty sure Call is traumatized for life. Oops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My upload schedule is non-existent, and I'm writing to procrastinate. Either way, new chapter. Please comment if you want me to do more reader-incorporation stuff, because last time it took quite a while for anyone to respond.

Call sat next to Aaron without groaning, dropping his not crumpled homework in the bin. Aaron, probably wondering if Call was on some sort of drug trip, looked mildly concerned at Call's surprisingly good mood.

"Um, what happened?" Call, choosing to deflect as much as possible from the crimes that he would be committing later that evening and the money he'd be receiving for those crimes, just smiled politely and pulled out what remained of his mangled math book.

"Call, seriously. You're 5 minutes early, and your homework was actually with you and didn't look like it had gone through a trash compactor."

"I'm flattered that you pay so much attention to me, Aaron." Call said, batting his eyelashes comically. To his mild surprise, Aaron blushed a bit.

"Well I- I mean to say- I just-" Aaron coughed into his sleeve, stared intensely at the floor for a good five seconds, and then asked Call what lunch was today. Call honestly had no idea.

"I think it's lasagna."

"Ok, now you're the one acting weird. What's going on?" Aaron's eyes widened a bit, which Call took to mean that Call had asked Aaron something that he didn't want to be asked. Granted, he had only really hung out with Aaron for a couple of days, but Aaron seemed like one of those people that was warm and bubbly and you could always open up to and honestly quite attractive and-

Wait. Call knew himself. He knew himself better than anyone else on the planet. He, Call, was straight. 100% straight. He could look at a girl and say that she was attractive, therefore he was straight. Granted, he hadn't really had the time to evaluate that statement. He suddenly came to the realization that during the course of this train of thought he had been staring at Aaron's face.

"Um, sorry. Just thinking about... stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Things and stuff."

"I get the feeling that you're trying to be intentionally vague."

"On that charge, my good sir, you would be correct."

"Right then. Sure you don't want to tell me?"

"Nope, I'm good." Aaron looked a bit disappointed, but that couldn't be helped. It wasn't as if Call could go: "oh hey, I just might have found out I'm not entirely straight in that period where I stared at your face for an indecent amount of time." That was just a shitty thing to do, especially when Call was actually starting to make friends again. Call had done a lot of shitty things, he thought to himself. He started tallying up the points in his head, and was snapped out of tallying point 119 when the bell rang for end of lesson.

Call wouldn't say that he avoided Aaron that day, but he was thankful that he didn't have any other classes with him. That gave Call some time to reflect on his situation before lunch, where he sat with Aaron, Tamara, and the snobby, idiot photographer who took a photo every time Call took a breath. 

The photographer in question slapped down a copy of the student newspaper, startling Aaron, annoying Tamara, and angering Call.

"What is it now, Jasper?"

"I've got you, Hunt. I finally found out your dirty little secret."

"What." Callum Hunt had panicked very few times in his life. The first time, he was five and he had broken his mother's very expensive vase. The second, he had just stabbed someone in the gut. This was the third. Does he know? Did he find out? Would he go to jail? Who read the paper?

"I know that you stole a Walmart shopping cart. Don't try and deny it, Hunt, I've got photographic proof." Call let out a sigh of relief.

"Seriously, Jasper, do you always have to make a story out of everything?" Tamara said, arching an eyebrow as she calmly dipped an avocado roll into a puddle of soy sauce.

"It _is_ a story. He committed a crime!"

"Oh, yes, and you using that poor girl Celia to stalk Call is just a completely normal recreational activity."

"Tamara!" Jasper said, doing his best to not look embarrassed.

"Oh come on, Jasper, the whole school knows Celia likes you. Don't act as if this is news."

"Yeah, dude." Aaron said, twirling a stray strand of cheese around his fork. 

"Oh, you're both just agreeing with Call because Aaron-" And before Jasper could get out the words, Tamara reached across the table, snatched Aaron's lasagna, and flung it in Jasper's face.

"Food fight!" Aaron yelled in an energetic, if slightly raspy, voice. Call assumed food fights were just for elementary schoolers, and was surprised to find himself absolutely wrong. Immediately, much to the dismay of the on-duty teachers and the bewildered janitorial staff, the cafeteria erupted into chaos. Call found himself being pulled under the table by Aaron, and found Tamara with a cupcake in her normally perfect hair and an ear-to-ear grin.

"Didn't expect that to work so well." Tamara said, picking some frosting out of her hair.

Aaron had brought his food tray under as well, and hurled a piece of garlic bread out into the great beyond. Some peas flew under the bench, and Aaron's face got hit with a giant wad of mashed potatoes. Call burst out laughing, and continued to until a block of lime jello caught him. Teachers were running around, trying to stop the fight, but there were too many children and not enough staff. The bell started ringing for fifth, but nobody was paying attention. By the time that they sent everyone home, no one was free from food. Call had escaped the brunt of it, although he was pretty sure there were a half-dozen peas somewhere in his pants. Aaron was the worst off, with every inch of his white t-shirt covered in red sauce. Tamara was the ninja, dodging lasagna and potatoes left and right. The only thing that betrayed her was a little frosting in her right braid and a splotch of sauce on her jeans.

Call biked home and then realized that there was still a Walmart shopping cart outside of his house. He'd deal with it tomorrow. By the time he'd showered, changed, and finished his homework, there was a knock at the door. Oh, god. Call suddenly remembered he had more than homework to do tonight. He opned the door to what looked like a normal delivery man, except he hadn't ordered a package. 

"I think you've got the wrong hou-"

"The enemy is always watching." the deliveryman said. Call inspected the package and found that it looked normal, right down to the packing tape. Call dug a pair of rusty scissors from a drawer and cut the box with 3 clean cuts.

"Holy shit!" Call said aloud, and he meant it. This stuff was classy. Normally, Call just had a black hoodie, jeans, and a pair of gloves. This was something straight out of a spy movie. Call piled the gear into the backpack, changed into the black suit they gave him, and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. He looked... like a thief. Call frowned distastefully at the gun. He didn't need it, and he didn't know how to use it, so he almost left it behind. But the Enemy's words played in his head, and he stuffed the gun in one of his pockets. He was ready, except it was still light, and he had no idea where he was going. At the bottom of the box was a thick white envelope, which Call tore open. Call's heart was racing as he slid the keys into his pocket before scanning the text of the letter.

_110 Cheshire Lane is the storage location. We will have eyes on you the whole time. If you try anything, you know what will happen. In your mask is a voice modulator so the subject won't recognize your voice._

Why would "the subject" recognize his voice?

 _The abductee is Aaron Stewart. Bring the subject unharmed to the storage location. Burn this letter_ _immediately._

Call put his head in his hands and sat there for a long time. It was an impossible thing. He couldn't do it. He felt tears blurring his vision, but he didn't care. What did they even need Aaron for? Sure, his parents were rich, but not that rich. And why him? If he didn't do it, his dad was as good as dead, and he probably was too. But what were they going to do with Aaron? The letter said unharmed, so they didn't want him dead yet. But that wouldn't stop them from hurting him later. Call had to do it. They'd get someone else to do it, later. There was no point in getting himself killed. Someone else wouldn't care about Aaron as much as he cared. Why did he care? He'd been fending for himself for so long, it was always him and dad. Why was this any different? Why did he feel things for Aaron? Handsome, smart Aaron. Perfect Aaron who never did anything wrong. Call shouldn't like him. In fact, the opposite should be true. Why was he willing to even consider risking everything over one boy? Deep down, Call thought he knew the answer. But there was no point dwelling on that now. 

By the time 10:00 rolled around, Call was somewhere near ready. Besides, Call didn't need to be ready. He was Jack, now. Jack didn't like Aaron. Jack was only interested in one thing and that was getting the job done. 

It was strange, how adrenaline made you remember things. Jack didn't wince recalling the door, he just took out the lock picks and opened the door. Jack made no sounds as he tiptoed through the familiar halls, opened the bedroom door that he'd walked through just days earlier. Jack didn't think about how peaceful Aaron looked when he was sleeping, he just put the gag on and tied Aaron's legs together and his arms behind his back. When Aaron woke up and started making panicked noises, Jack didn't let a tear slip down his cheek as he put the cloth over Aaron's mouth and waited those four not-at-all painful minutes. Jack did admit that Aaron was heavy as he closed the front door behind him and started the almost noiseless electric car. Finally, Jack pulled into the storage room and removed the gag. Jack didn't put his bag under Aaron's head to try and make him more comfortable, he just picked up the phone when it started to ring, and didn't shiver at the voice that responded.

"You're going to take the abductee-"

"Aaron." Jack said.

"You're going to take the abductee and put him in the chair to your right. Then, you are going to wake him up. It may take a while. You're going to wait for him to be awake, and then you're going to ask him some questions."

"Why me?"

"Didn't I say not to address me?"

"I'm not and he's sleeping. Why me?"

"Because if you don't get anything out of him, you will head into the back room and we will fool him into thinking you have also been abducted. We can't hurt him, but we need answers."

"What could Aaron possibly know? And why would having me there make him say anything?"

"That is none of your concern."

"Make it my concern. You made me kidnap him, which is highly illegal. You have my dad. I'm not going to rat on you."

"Fine. The abductee's parents adopted him at age twelve. Before that, we believe that he may have witnessed some events that a specific group will pay handsomely to know about."

"And the second question?"

"We have it on good authority that the abductee cares about you a great deal."

"What do you mean-"

"You are being recorded at all times. The list of questions is in the bag. When you've finished, burn the list."

Click.

Call's mind was filled with burning questions, but he was under pressure. He hefted Aaron into the chair and retied him. It didn't look comfortable, but Call guessed that was the least of Aaron's worries. Jack. You are Jack. You need to do this. Finish the job.

Jack wafted the bottle under Aaron's nose, and Aaron started to stir, and then he started to struggle. If Jack knew anything, it was how to tie a knot. Aaron wasn't getting out of that anythime soon. 

"Who are you? Where am I?" Aaron asked at the realization that he couldn't get out.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that." Jack mentally scolded Call for being so polite. He needed to be more like the Enemy. 

"I need to ask you some questions."

"If I answer them, will I be let go?"

"I can't tell you that either."

"Well what can you tell me?"

"That you need to answer questions."

"No."

"Please." Aaron looked confused, but defiant. Jack was angry at Call for saying something so gushy.

"Why should I answer anything you ask me?"

"For your own good." Call said, trying to look threatening.

"I'm not scared of you. I can take a beating." Call shuddered at what horrors Aaron had to go through to be able to say those words.

"We have one of your friends." At this, Aaron started pulling at the ropes, which made Call wince.

"LET THEM GO!" Call's shoulders were shaking, but Aaron didn't seem to notice.

"Look, I-we can let them go if you just answer the questions."

"I don't even know if you have them. I'm not answering anything." It looked like he was going to have to lie after all. Call wasn't good at lying. 

The phone started buzzing, which Call took as a sign that he needed to go. He found a square of wall that was seperate, and to Call's surprise, a hand pushed the wall back and tugged Call in by his wrist.

"Put these on." the man said, throwing what looked like Call's clothes to him. He realized that this man was actually the same height as him, and wearing the same gear. Why Call had to make the abduction he would never know. Call came to the sudden realization that this man was probably the same age as him. Why anyone would choose to do this Call had no idea.

"Where did you get these?"

"Just put them on."

"Fine." The stranger turned away, imaptiently tapping his foot on the floor. Call just hoped he'd be able to keep it together. 


	6. I Betray You so that I Betray No One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call tries to get out of his current situation but somehow ends up getting into even deeper shit, Aaron is somehow a cinnamon roll and an alpha at the same time but nobody's complaining, everyone hates the Enemy, and Drew enters stage left. Also, I didn't mean to make those few sentences so... gay, but just roll with it. You'll know 'em when you see 'em.

Call attempted to make awkward small talk while he changed, trying to alleviate the stream of thoughts racing through his head.

"So, uh, what's your name?"

"Drew."

"Any chance you're also under threat from this Enemy guy and you're not doing this by choice?"

"No."

"Great."

"Yup."

"Move." Drew mumbles after tying Call's wrists together and putting on a blindfold. Call can feel the cold steel of the gun between his shoulder blades, and it makes him shudder when he wonders just how far Drew is willing to go to get those answers. Finally, he feels Drew push him to his knees.

"Call! I swear to god if you hurt him I'll-" Aaron says in a hoarse voice, and Call is grateful that he can't see Aaron's face.

"I'm fine." Call says, biting his cheek so hard that after a couple seconds he can taste blood.

"It's gonna be ok, Call. I'm gonna get us out of this." Aaron said with a surprising amount of confidence.

"Yeah, ok." And Call hopes for his sake Aaron is right about that.

"Who ran the gang your father was in?" Drew is blunt, stiff, and to the point, and Call wonders if Aaron will notice the difference. Luckily, it looks like he doesn't. "I don't know." Aaron says, and Call hopes to god that Aaron is just feigning ignorance. Call hears the click of the gun being cocked and winces involuntarily.

"Stop! I don't know, but I-I can get it for you. I just need a little time. Look, my dad gave me some contacts, I can find out for you, I just need-"

Aaron's heartfelt plea is interrupted by the tinny ringtone of the disposable phone. Drew seemed confident before, but Call could hear that his voice was shaky.

"Yes, I understand. But dad, what if they... I know. The cause comes first." Drew pulls the blindfold off of Call, and it's too bright even in the dim room. Aaron looks confused, but Call just has the sinking feeling something has gone horribly wrong. 

"You have a week. We keep him until you give us the info. If not, you'll be getting some very unsettling packages in the mail."

"Wait, no! You can't keep me here! This isn't how it was supposed to hap-" Shit. Shit. Shit. Aaron stared at him with wide, unblinking eyes.

"Call. I'm going to ask you something. And I want you to answer me honestly." Aaron's eyes bore into him, and Call's eyes fixed to the patch of floor in front of him.

"Look, I know it seems crazy, but... did you know? About any of it?" Call looked up into Aaron's angelic face. The look he was giving him... Call didn't even know what it was. Pity? Anguish? Scorn?

All Call had to do was say no. Aaron was a nice guy, Aaron would trust him. If he hurt Aaron, Aaron might not care about Call enough to save him. Other people could get brought into this mess. It was a one syllable word. Call could feel Jack at the outskirts of his consciousness, egging him on. Call had never been good at lying. He felt like he wasn't in control of his words. Call barely noticed how blurry the world had become. He begged Aaron mentally to forgive him. Silence isn't yes. Silence isn't yes. Silence isn't enough.

He, Callum Hunt, didn't like crying in front of people. Aaron Stewart was probably the person that he'd want to cry the least in front of. But the cold, distant look in Aaron's eyes told him everything he'd ever needed to know. 

Silence was enough.


	7. Dark Falls Slowly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaron leaves to take care of some important business. Call meets Jacob. Call and The Enemy have a chat.

Drew untied Aaron's ropes, and Aaron walked out the door without so much as a look in Call's direction. Walked casually, too, as if he had all the time in the world before Call's fingers showed up at his doorstep. Call wanted to hate him, so much. It would be so much easier. But he couldn't blame him if Aaron just wanted to run. Aaron always seemed so... nice. Like he would do anything for a total stranger because he believed people were naturally good or some shit like that. Call had always bought the rich kid goody-two-shoes act without a second thought. But what if it was all just an act? What if Aaron, sweet, funny, kind Aaron was just the cover story for a kid who needed to fit in?

Maybe, Call reflected as Drew ushered him to the car, it was his fault. Of course it was. Maybe Aaron assumed his friendliness was some elaborate deception, meant to lull him into a false sense of security. But that was unthinkable for Call, as he watched Aaron's perfect silhouette finally fade into the darkness. At first he'd hated the mere concept of Aaron, and after such a short time he couldn't imagine a world without his laugh or his eyes or his perfect smile or- Then Call realised that he'd probably never see Aaron smile again. Not at him, at least. How could he have expected this to work out? Now he was stuck driving to some unknown location as he was slowly maimed for some cheap information on a petty gang dispute.

Jack was lamenting, too. Jack prioritized goals over everything. No more auto shop. No more getting dad out of rehab. No more 'setting up legit'. And the money, if it had ever been there at all, was out of the question because Aaron Stewart wouldn't risk life and limb to save him. Aaron would get on with his perfect life and his perfect friends, and forget that Callum Hunt ever existed. 

Finally, after what seemed like mere minutes but was probably a lot longer, Call was snapped out of his brooding by the car door opening and Drew ushering him out, flailing the gun he was holding as nonchalantly as if it were a toy. Drew walked Call up to a large, dark building that looked like a factory, from what Call could see. Inside the large, dimly lit entraceway, a gruff voice awaited them.

"Drew." the voice said expectantly.

"Dad!" The man glanced at Drew, and then looked distastefully at Call.

"You let him come in without a blindfold."

"He was in some kind of comatose state on the way over, couldn't even see his hand in front of him, let alone figure out who we are."

"I'll take him to Constantine. Go to the arena and practice how to properly handle that gun. You couldn't shoot a man if he was standing 5 feet from you." Call wished someone had said that to him a lot sooner, or he might have been able to get to his dad and get out of state before The Enemy's men got after them.

"Come with me, Hunt. The Enemy wants to see you." 

"What if I don't want to see him?" the man looked at him strangely and said:

"You're the one with your hands tied behind your back. Does it look like you have a choice?" Call slipped his hands out of the rope holding them and dropped it in the man's hand. 

"Yes. Constantin- The Enemy wants to see you." In response to that, the man took a gun from his belt and held it up to Call's head.

"Whoa there. You don't have to shoot me about it." Call said, and the man just grunted, nodded his head, and walked Call down a winding series of dark corridors until they reached a black door.

The man knocked in a 3-2-1 pattern (he would have to remember that for later) and the door swung open to reveal a lair that even Call had to admit was pretty bad ass. Everything was silver and black, from the lamps to the leather chair to the Enemy's boots Call totally didn't want a pair of. 

"Call! I've been expecting you." Constantine-The Enemy said, in a cheerful way that definitely shouldn't have been used in the situation Call was in.

"You can set him down here, Joseph. And leave us alone a while, would you?" Constantine said, playing with a knife he picked up off the table for dramatic effect.

The door swung shut, and Call was alone with this maniac.

"Good to see you again. Look, I'm sorry with all the... prior formalities, but that was necessary. We needed you to stay motivated for the job!"

"Why are you acting like this? What more do you want with me?"

"Look. You and I, we're the same person, Call."

"Jackasses who commit horrible crimes?" Constantine laughed and stabbed the knife into the tabletop.

"I prefer the term 'entrepreneurs'. We're both doing this because we have to." Now it was Call's turn to laugh.

"You could have stopped this a long time ago."

"Look, Call. We both know you could have stopped if you really tried. The fact of the matter is, you like crime. Deep down, there's a part of it that thrills you. We've been keeping tabs on you for a while." Call shuddered. "I'm offering you an in. Work for me, and all your problems go away." 

"No." Constantine laughed again, the glint in his eyes both calming and terrifying at once.

"Look, kid. You don't have much of a choice. You rent your daddy's shop to druggies who treat the place like crap, your daddy's off in some loonie bin popping pills and on the brink of insanity, and you're struggling to make ends meet even with doing a little thieving on the side. You've hit up every rich house in the city and then some! You really think that a couple more trips to the pawn shop is gonna get you out of the shit?" Call swallowed hard. 

"I can offer you more money than you could ever need, Call. Hell, we could even fix up your dad with a little nurse and send him back to his shop. He would never have to know. I can offer you a family, a place at my side. Joseph wanted his little brat to be next in line, but that kid doesn't have the balls for gang life. Obsessed with ponies, ya know. Can't even hold a gun properly."

"Yeah, well I can't either."

"Not yet, you can't. But you can hold a knife pretty well, judging from the state that poor bloke was in when we found him. We cleaned that little mess up for you too, you know. And besides, we'd teach you what you need to know. After Stewart dishes, we could even keep him around for you when you get off work. Or we got girls, if you don't swing that way." Constantine's eyes raked over Call, expecting a reaction, and Call willed his face not to redden. Judging by the smirk on the other guy's face, it hadn't worked.

"I'll tell ya what. I'll give you a couple days to think on it. Until pretty boy comes back with the info. Then, you can either make the best choice of your life... Or you can both die together." 

"Why me? I never wanted this, I never wanted any of it." Constantine rested his feet on the dark table, leaned back, and smiled.

"I'll tell you a little secret, kid. Me and your dad... well you could say that we're old friends." Call's head was pounding.

"How did you know-"

"Joseph! Take the kid to his room. And then take him to the arena. Have the Strike kid teach him how to shoot." And with that, the man- Joseph- pulled Call out of his seat and slammed the door behind him.


	8. Biting the Bullet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call meets Strike and explores the factory with a little help from Joseph. Call also ponders his choices, his motives, and his future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok guys, so I'm also posting all these chapters on Wattpad. My Wattpad account atm contains only this fic, although I'm probably doing some neat OC stuff if you want to check me out. flakypie is still my user on Wattpad. 
> 
> This chapter was 7 pages on gdocs, but only like 1.5 on here so... make of that what you will. I haven't updated too recently because I was moving, but here is your chapter. I have literally abandoned every other fic for you guys, so enjoy!

After Joseph drops Call off in his room, he waits patiently outside the door. As much as Call hates Constantine, he’s gotta admit that the guy did know Call’s style. There was a closet, a large bed, and a fully stocked coffee bar with an adjoining bathroom. It had been ages since Call had had a hot shower, mainly because he kept forgetting to pay the water bill. Call grabbed a pastry off the coffee cart while the coffee was brewing, showered, and changed into the black hoodie and jeans that oddly fit him perfectly. There was even a pair of cool leather combat boots that Call secretly loved, and he decided not to worry about the fact that these people seemed to know everything about him, including his shoe size. So, coffee in hand, he felt surprisingly good considering he’d just kidnapped his best friend and then gotten kidnapped himself immediately after. 

Joseph looked slightly taken aback, but he just grunted and lead Call in silence down more twisting corridors until they reached a large, well-lit room with artillery the likes of which Call had never seen. Call didn’t know that so many weapons existed. Then Call noticed a boy walking up to them, definitely older than him but not by a lot. Call guessed he was probably ‘the Strike boy’ that was supposed to teach him how to shoot. Call noticed he was dressed a lot like Constantine, though whether that was customary or his choice Call didn’t know.

“Hi, I’m Alex Strike. You here for a lesson?” the boy said.

“Uh, Call. And this is totally the reason why I came to a gang factory under my own volition with my hands tied behind my back..” A jab in the shoulder from Joseph reminded Call that he wasn’t at liberty to use sarcasm here.

“If you ask me, It’s just a useful skill to have. I’ll start you off with the basics.” Alex said, completely ignoring everything Call just said with a grin eerily similar to Constantine’s.

“This here is your standard glock 19. This is the clip, it takes 9 mm ammo, good starter gun because of the short recoil.” Alex said cheerily, as if.

“You put the clip in like this, turn the safety off here, you cock the gun by pulling this back, and then you pull the trigger. To release the clip you just press this and it slides right out. Got it?”

“Uh… Maybe?” Call didn’t particularly want to be here, but he also didn’t want to shoot himself in the foot while he was.

“Ok. Start by loading and unloading the glock a couple times, and then you can practice firing on that target.” Alex said.

Call was clumsy at first, and he missed a couple shots, but after he started hitting the target he got faster and more accurate.

“You’re a natural! Your grip is spot on.” Alex exclaimed. Call nodded halfheartedly. He didn’t want to be a natural. He would rather he sucked at it, because it meant there was a better chance that they would just leave him alone. 

After Alex talked Call through a couple more guns and how to load them, Call could go back to his room and sleep. The bed was surprisingly comfortable, the caffeine had worn off. He should have been able to sleep. But something about the way Aaron had looked at him haunted him. Did Aaron hate him? Would he ever come back? What would they do to Call if he didn’t?

And Constantine’s words haunted him, too. Was he cut out for a life of crime? Did he even have a choice? Call didn’t know if he could do the right thing, or what the right thing was. Granted, being on a first-name basis with a powerful gang head didn’t help matters. Nor did the fact he was giving serious thought to Constantine’s offer. He could get killed, arrested, or worse. But if he didn’t join, he would have to escape. And if he didn’t want them to hurt Aaron, he would have to escape with him. If Aaron came back at all.

Call wasn’t a good liar. But he knew when to keep a poker face, at least. And that meant playing along until he knew enough to leave. He might as well keep his options open, anyway. He still didn’t know why Constantine wanted him, a stranger, to succeed him, over someone like Alex. He still didn’t understand how his father could have ever been friends with someone like Constantine. 

Call’s head was full of questions, but somehow, miraculously, he was able to sleep. 

He woke up the next morning with an empty stomach and someone knocking on the door. 

“Get up and get ready. I’ll be back here in a half hour.” It sounded like Joseph, but it could have been any of Constantine’s henchmen. 

Call emerged from his room a few minutes early, and looked around the corner. It was a straight shot from his room down the stairs and out the door. He could probably sneak out in the middle of the night. He was snapped out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder. Call’s knee-jerk reaction, oddly enough, was to punch them in the face. Them, incidentally, happened to be Drew. 

“I heard that Constantine is grooming you for command.” Drew said with an indiscernible tone.

“Look, I don’t want to do this, ok?” Call said.

“No, It’s great! I only do this to make my dad happy. He’s the one that wants me to be next in line.” Drew replied happily.

“Well I’m not doing it. Get someone else to, I don’t want any part of it.” Call said.

“No, wait! Think about it. You’re only killing bad people, right? Other gangs. At least think about it!” Drew said with a panicked tone.

“Fine. If you tell your dad to lay off me.” Drew looked at him quizzically.

“Ok, but he likes you more than me anyway.” Drew said matter-of-factly.

“What?”

“Something about ‘I should be more like Call’ and ‘he’s going to outrank you soon enough if you’re not careful’.”

“Why?” Call asked. “You’re his kid, aren’t you?”

“Tough love, I guess. Besides, you’re into all… this.” Drew gestured at Call’s outfit. “I’m just the kid who likes ponies.” Then, Joseph appeared from around the corner.

“I need to get down to the arena. I’ll see you later, I guess.” Drew said.

“Bye.” Call said, slightly confused and very weirded out on why so many of the gang members who had forced him to abduct someone against his will were being so friendly. 

“I’m going to show you around the factory. The bare minimum on what you need to know so that I don’t have to baby you all day.”

“Won’t that leave me opportunity for escape?” Call said.

“Look, kid. This place is like a prison. We’ve got people everywhere, 24/7. And every single one of us-” Joseph picks up a fold of his jacket to reveal a holster. “-has got one or two of these. It’s practically suicide trying to escape.” Call gulped instinctively. 

Joseph showed him how to get to the shooting-range, the arena, the ‘cafeteria’, the gym (which was more of a factory themed parkour zone), and Constantine’s lair from his room, and then dropped him back with Strike for more training. This time, it was hand-to-hand, which Call was slightly better at.

“Now you’re kinda scrawny, but you’re pretty fast. You’re gonna want to use evasion rather than sheer brute force. Fight dirty, often. Trip him up, duck under him, flip him over. Best course of action, believe it or not, is to run and take cover so you can shoot at ‘em. We’ve got more firepower than ‘em, mostly. Other gangs might have some stupid honor codes, but for us there’s no shame in retreating.” Alex proceeded to mock fight with Call, showing him a few useful moves.

“Ok, I think we’re good for now. I swear to god, Call, you were born for this. We’re gonna look at some bigger guns later. I think it’s manicotti for lunch.” Alex said, wiping a bead of sweat from his face.

“Um, thanks. Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.” Alex said, grinning.

“Why aren’t  _ you  _ next in line since you’re so good at this stuff? Or Joseph?” The grin quickly evaporated from Alex’s face, and Call could see he’d breached a sore subject.

“Constantine asked Joseph, but he said he didn’t want it. And me… Constantine said I wasn’t ready. I didn’t understand that the gang was a family or some crap like that. Loyalty and shit.”

“Right.” Call said under his breath. The room was tense for a moment.

“Anyway, I gotta go. Chiao!”Alex said, back to his usual self. It was strange, how much Alex resembled Constantine. Almost as if he was trying.

Call shakily made his way to the ‘cafeteria’, which was a large room with tables in various states of disarray and a heavenly aroma wafting up from large casserole dishes sprinkled around the tables. Call, who was hungry, grabbed a plate from the stacks by the door and helped himself to a massive spoonful of manicotti. How food could ever be this good, Call had no idea. Call nearly jumped when Drew slammed his tray down at Call’s table. Drew, not sensing Call’s discomfort, then proceeded to noisily chew his manicotti whilst talking at such a fast rate that Call had to focus on Drew’s words to discern what he was even saying. 

“Alex told me you’re good with a gun. Well, for a beginner, anyway. Oh, and don’t tell anyone I said this, but after they test you a bit you might go out into the field. I only went out once, and that’s cause I was the same age as you. You’re really lucky, everybody likes you so far. Well, at least more than they like me. By the way, have you decided if you’re gonna accept Constantine’s offer? I mean, the alternative isn’t pretty. My dad made me watch once, had nightmares for a week. Anyway, what’s new with you?” Drew said as if he hadn’t just been talking about dismemberment. 

Call was still absorbing Drew’s last words. Suddenly, the manicotti didn’t look as good. Call picked at his food absentmindedly, wishing Drew would leave him alone to ponder his existence and rethink his life descisions up to this point. 

“Mmphm.” Call said noncommittally, and Drew continued to babble, this time something about ponies. After a few sentences, Call drifted off. People would notice Call was missing from school. He may have been late, but Call was rarely absent. Was Aaron even coming back? Did Call want him to? It was in Call’s best interests to join the gang, Jack nagged at the back of his head. He wouldn’t have to worry about his dad, he could be part of something. If Aaron did come back, he would be safe. Call could protect him. Call still didn’t know how Constantine knew his father, or why he kept tabs on Call these past few years. It wasn’t was if Call had high moral standards, either. 

Call was snapped out of his thoughts and back into reality when Joseph tapped him on the shoulder and said:

“Constantine wants to see you” in a gruff voice. Call left his half- eaten plate of manicotti at the table, nodded at Drew, and followed Joseph down the slightly more familiar factory corridors. After a few turns, Call finally arrives at the two massive metal doors of Constantine’s ‘office’. Call just hoped he hadn’t screwed anything up just yet.


	9. Seductive Treachery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call meets with Constantine, but he still has so many questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically, this is a small little filler chapter, so I can add a time skip. School is starting up again, so updates might be shorter and/or less frequent. Or, nothing will change at all b/c I don't have an upload schedule.

Call winced as the huge metal doors creaked open, revealing Constantine, The Enemy, looking as badass as ever in all black, rustic desk a haphazard mess that somehow made him look even cooler. Call couldn’t help but imagine himself in that chair, cutting into that apple with the trained accuracy of someone who has wielded countless knives before. Call made a mental note to stop fangirling over the evil gang lord’s badassery, and sat down in the chair across from Constantine.

“So, Call, how are you enjoying our renowned hospitality?” Constantine said with a smirk.

“Um, It’s a very nice place you have here.”

“You’ve thought about my offer?” Constantine questioned expectantly. Call had, but whether he wanted to be part of the gang or not he still hadn’t decided. Still, the best course of action either way was to say yes, get closer to Constantine and get more freedom. 

“I’ll do it.” Call said confidently, as Constantine broke out into another grin.

“As I knew you would. I need someone like you, Call; I need someone who understands how important family is. It’s a dangerous business, not gonna lie to ya. But you get the thrill of it, you understand what it’s all about.”

“I do?” Call asked quizzically.

“Fun.” Constantine said with a gleam in his eye, cutting off another slice of apple and crunching it to emphasize his point.

“You think killing people is fun?” Call said with more shock than should have been given. He was a gang leader, after all. A powerful one. Constantine erupted into laughter, and then stared at Call with deadly eyes.

“Of course it is. You’ll find out soon enough.” Call shook his head vigorously, recalling the events of just a few years earlier.

“I have found out. It isn’t.” Constantine frowned, as if Call had done something to offend him.

“How disappointing. Of course, you were young then. Scared. But now that you’re acquainted with crime, you’ll find it’s much easier to take someone’s life. You start to enjoy it, after a while. Look forward to it. Hatred is a powerful thing, Call. Life must be taken in order for life to be made.” Constantine pointed his knife at Call, expecting him to respond. Call shook his head again.

“Killing people doesn’t make anything except a bigger mess.” Call said, wary of angering Constantine too much. 

“You don’t get the full picture just yet, Call. Give it a chance, you’ll learn. We’re sending you out on a job soon, after the Stewart boy comes back with the intel, of course.” Call’s neck reddened at the mention of Aaron, which made Constantine raise an eyebrow. 

“Strike will keep training you until then. Any questions?”

“How did you know my father?” Constantine looked up from his apple at Call’s question with a mix of nostalgia and surprise.

“We were… partners in crime, you could say. Before Joseph came along, he and me…” Constantine stopped for a moment, pensive, and then his eyes flitted from Call back to the apple. “But that’s a story for another day. Joseph will take you back to your room, assuming you don’t have other plans.”

Call shook his head, and Constantine knocked on the desk with his foot, signalling for Joseph to come in. Call and Joseph parted ways at the door, an unspoken agreement to interact as little as possible slowly falling into place. Call went to bed, tired and confused with the days events, pondering the connections between Constantine and his father, and wondering if Aaron would come back at all. If he were Aaron, Call would be running. That was the smart thing to do. He secretly, guiltily hoped that Aaron wasn’t smart enough to leave him. But seeing the look in his eyes when he left, Call knew deep down the chances of Aaron saving him from his own poor choices were too good to be true.


	10. Drowning Midair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A week passes, and Call gets less and less sure that Aaron will save him, and more and more sure Constantine will cut off one of his toes for 'initiation'. All Call knows is he needs to save himself, Aaron, and his father. Whatever that takes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, new chapter! I reply to every single bit of praise, criticism, and suggestion you guys give me. I don't take offense if you don't like parts of anything, so please tell me is something is bugging you and I'll do my best to fix it. I also want to try and set up some more reader centric events and get to know you guys, so, uh, if anyone wants to do a Magisterium collab or chat on Discord or something to that effect let me know in *the comments* and I'll try to set something up. So without further adieu, the tenth chapter of The Danger ABC's! 

Days passed, and Call was pretty sure he could shoot a Glock backwards with his eyes closed if it came down to it. He was sore from the constant exercises and maneuvers that Alex made him do from hand to hand, and had little bruises and cuts from the blunted knives they used. Every day, he expected Aaron to be led through the door against all odds. And every day, he gave up a little of ever getting out of this place. Constantine was still being vague about how he and his dad got into crime, saying they were “old friends” every time. They trusted Call more now, that he’d accepted Constantine’s offer. He carried a Glock on his belt and a knife at his side, just like everyone else in the compound. Call was ashamed to feel more at home here than he had in a long time. 

Call had a routine, now that he didn’t have to steal anymore. He’d asked about his dad, but Constantine said they were taking care of it, and Call opted to believe him. According to Constantine, Call could go see him after he helped with a couple of jobs. Call wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but seeing as Call hadn’t visited for a while anyway he figured it wouldn’t make a difference to his dad. Every day, Call would grab breakfast from his room, (which he was a little paranoid about because it was always fully stocked, and he was pretty sure they crept in while he was sleeping) train with Alex, eat lunch with Drew, go see Constantine, have a strange talk with Joseph on the way back to his room, and then wander around until it was dinner time. Every day, Call’s anxiety grew. He was replaceable, and guessing on Constantine’s excitement every time he mentioned the intel Aaron was supposedly bringing back, Call wondered if they were willing to sacrifice him for ‘the greater good’. Or bits of him, at least. 

Constantine, Call found, was one of those people with a sadistic grin on his face and a malevolent twinkle in his eye, sweet as pie until you decided to cross him and then it was all over. Alex had started going harder on him, and with each passing day and the looming certainty of the succession Alex grew more and more distant. Drew was as cheery as ever in the cafeteria that day, and Call cut his meatloaf into increasingly tiny pieces while Drew ranted about how his dad would make sure they were together on all the jobs and how he was so happy Drew was making friends. Call mentally compared the images of happy and Joseph together, and they didn’t click. Call was friends with Drew because he needed to be. Putting up the pretense of having friends made it less likely that they would suddenly change their minds about having him in the gang. Call was snapped out of his thoughts by a familiar name.

“And they say Aaron Stewart came back today with the intel and that they’re holding him in a special cell until Constantine himself comes to interrogate-”

“Drew.” Call growled.

“Yes?” Drew asked, looking up from his plate to stare questioningly at Call.

“I need to know where that is. Right now.” Call stood up, the glass of water adjacent to him sloshing onto the table with the movement. 

“I think it’s the last cell when you go in there, the corridor straight down the staircase when you come in that used to be a ton of offices.” Call’s view of the compound was shaky at best, and Drew’s directional sense wasn’t exactly perfect, but it was worth a shot. Call bolted out of the room, almost tripping and catching himself on the wall when he made a sharp left. Call sped down the staircase, putting several guards on alarm, but he didn’t care. The last cell. The last cell. Call ran past room after room of groaning people, ignoring the stench of death in the air until he came to… nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

Constantine was cutting into one of his dark red apples, staring at Call as if it were perfectly normal to lounge around in one of your old cells. He tilted his head at Call, apparently expecting an explanation. Call’s knees were shaking, he couldn’t catch his breath, but he still managed to spit out something along the lines of “Where’s Aaron” before he slumped into the chair across from Constantine. 

Constantine grinned a grin that made it almost to his ears, and it made Call wonder what his bad side was like, and shiver as a result.

“We brought him in today, took a little longer than we anticipated, but we got him. Had to send him a little toe from one of the scum we got lying around here. He couldn’t tell the difference, in pretty bad shape by the time it arrived.” Call was mortified, and apparently it showed because Constantine’s grin lit up even more. “Don’t worry lover boy, we haven’t knocked him up too badly. Pristine condition, if I do say so myself. After we get the info, we’ll drop him off in your room. Probably have some explaining to do, eh? Joseph will listen in on you, wouldn’t want you to say anything too… revealing.” He cocks an eyebrow at Call with the statement, as if he could see Call’s wavering intentions. 

“If he starts to get shouty, bitey, or otherwise aggressive, do yell.” 

“You’re armed, anyway. Should know how to use that thing pretty well.” Constantine removed his knife from the slice he was cutting and pointed at Call’s holster. 

“If you wanna keep him around for… personal use, we got a crew that’ll break him in for ya. Nothing too visible, obviously. Well, nothing that won’t heal in a couple of weeks.” Constantine laughed, a high, cold laugh that made Call shove his hand in the pocket of his hoodie to stop it shaking. 

“I don’t need him… broken in. I can deal with Aaron by myself. I just need to talk to him.” Constantine placed his half-eaten apple on the table, bit the apple slice off his knife, and threw the knife into the apple at such velocity that it rolled for a solid 2 feet before stopping at the edge of the table. 

“Your choice, I guess. You’re a Madden now. Just don’t let- ‘feelings’ get in the way of doing what needs to be done. He should be up there by now.” The word feelings was spat as if it were a bad taste in his mouth. Constantine nodded at Call as way of dismissal and Call walked up the stairs to his room, where Joseph was waiting at the door. Call bit the inside of his lip so hard that he could taste the coppery tang of blood. His heart is going a million miles a minute, a slew of thoughts are racing through his head. ‘Aaron hates him now.’ ‘He’s failed.’ ‘His dad hates him.’ ‘He’s just getting in the way.’ He tames the chaos into something resembling order, and swings open the door, half hoping no one is waiting for him on the other side.

“Call.”


	11. Hate the Way I Love You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call and Aaron talk. Things get messy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers! I want to inform you this chapter was 5 whole pages on gdocs, even if it seems really short. I need to know what your expectations are when Call and Aaron finally get over themselves and start making out. I'm guessing I'm dealing with the full on wrath of the smut-starved calron shippers, but I have no clue. The comments I receive will be what I do, so if you see that someone has requested smut and you do not want any part of it, or vice versa, the best way to change that is to comment. I will put warnings on adult chapters and make sure to mark them as such, if that is what you desire. Ok, I know you're all eager to see Call and Aaron duke it out. Behold, the next chapter of the Danger ABC's!

“Call.”

“Aaron-”

“Don’t.” Green eyes pierced to his very soul, stabbing his heart with a jolt of pain. 

“Why did you come back for me?” Call said, digging his fingernails into the soft skin of his palm. 

“Because even after all the shit you did, I still care about you.”

“You’ve known me for 2 weeks, at best! Why would you risk everything just to save a nobody like me?” Call said, staring into the pools of emerald that reflected his own image. Aaron smiled, a small, sad, perfect smile of a boy that had been through too much for too little. 

“You still don’t understand, do you?” Aaron said, taking a step towards him.

“Understand what?” Call replied, face heating at Aaron’s proximity. A flash of an emotion that Call couldn’t identify came over him, but the spark died out as quickly as it had come into his eyes. Aaron turned around and walked back towards Call’s bed, shrugging his head into his hands, hair falling into his face like a golden halo.

“I didn’t realize that you didn’t want to be saved.” Aaron said, after a while.

“Look, Aaron I did what I did because they- they-” Call’s throat choked with emotion.

“What.” Aaron said with more venom than Call had ever heard him use.

“They said if I didn’t join them they were going to kill my dad. And you. I didn’t ask for any of this.” Tears were running down his cheeks now, but he couldn’t stop them. He was ashamed. Aaron looked up at him with a mixture of pity and regret.

“I’m sorry.” Aaron murmured, barely audible across the thick silence.

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.” Call muttered.

“So what _he_ told me wasn’t true?” Aaron asked hopefully.

“What did he tell you?” Call said, wary of just how much Constantine knew.

“ _He_ said you were the one who kidnapped me, and that you were a thief before any of this went down, and that you… killed a man? It sounds so stupid, now that I think about it.” Aaron’s eyes went from Call’s face to the floor, as if the very mention of Constantine scared him. Call felt sick. 

“Look, there was no other way… My dad was getting worse. I had to put him up in this… clinic. A part-time job couldn’t cover everything, and I wasn’t old enough anyway. I just needed to finish highschool. Aaron, please believe me when I say-”

“And the last one?”

“Aaron-”

“The last one?”

“I was young, I was scared, and he was going to call the cops. But Aaron-”

“Did he attack you? Did he do anything to _suggest_ he would even _try_ to hurt you?” Call noticed Aaron’s voice breaking too. Suddenly, something in Call just snapped.

“GOD DAMN IT AARON! I WAS 14! YOU CAN’T PRETEND YOU HAVE SUCH HIGH MORAL STANDARDS WHEN YOU’RE IN JUST AS DEEP SHIT AS I AM! I’M SORRY! I HAVE BEEN SORRY EVERY SECOND OF EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY FOR THREE YEARS. Look, I understand you’re perfect. Everything about you is perfect. But I’m not. I hate myself for it, but that changes nothing.” Call rubbed the tears from his eyes and made sure he dropped the tone of his voice low enough so that Joseph couldn’t listen in.

“If you think that I’m a monster, if you think I don’t deserve to live, then just tell me and I’ll do everything I can to get you out of this hell before I end up getting shot. But if you think there’s even a chance that I can redeem myself, then we can at least try to make a clean break before Constantine changes his mind and decides to kill us both.” Call didn’t realize he had made a decision until he said it out loud. He wasn’t like Constantine, and he never wanted to be. He wanted what he couldn’t have. He wanted Aaron. 

“I don’t hate you, Call. I don’t think you’re a monster, either.” Aaron said in a hoarse voice.

“You don’t?” Call said, trying not to sound surprised.

“God knows I’ve sinned enough for the both of us. I just didn’t realize…. I could have helped you.” Call laughed.

“How, holding people at gunpoint while I took their wallets? Hiding the body while I counted the cash?” Aaron looked up at him and smiled, hair in glorious disarray. 

“I would have figured something out. Do you have a plan?” Call shook his head.

"We're gonna die." Call said, remembering what Joseph told him about escaping.

“At least we’re going to die together.” Aaron said, grinning.

“So what are they planning to do to me once you say we’re done talking?” Call turned a shade of dark red he thought wasn’t humanly possible.

“Well, I said I wanted to keep you around, so Constantine thinks…” Aaron looked very confused. Call realized he would have to elaborate.

“I think he thinks that I want to, um…” Aaron looked even more confused, and Call was getting exasperated.

“He thinks I want you to be my lover. Or mistress. Or both at once.” Aaron immediately looked down at his shoes and blushed, which Call found both adorable and embarrassing. 

“I mean I understand if you wouldn’t want to put up the pretense that you and I were engaging in… that, but desperate times call for desperate measures.” Oh, god.

“I mean, if you’re willing. To pretend, I mean. I mean it’s kind of the only way we can get out of here, so…” 

Call was definitely making things worse. A lot worse. Aaron coughed once, declared he was going to take a shower and he would be out in 20 minutes, and Call decided to drop the subject until further mention. He was probably exhausted, anyway.

“Um, Call.” Aaron said, getting off of the bed to face him.

“Yeah?”

“Where am I going to sleep tonight?” Call ruffled a hand through his hair and said like the gentleman that he was:

“I’ll sleep on the floor.” Call said.

“No, dude. It’s fine. Just making sure there wasn’t like a spare bedroom in your little bachelor pad or anything.” 

Call changed into the pajamas Constantine had given him, and after a couple of minutes Aaron came out of the shower with nothing but a towel around his waist. It took every square inch of willpower Call had to keep his eyes pinned on Aaron’s face. 

“Um, you can borrow some of my clothes. Pajamas are in the bottom drawer. I only have the one toothbrush, though.”

“Thanks.” Aaron said, ambling over to the opposite wall. As much as the little creep in his head wanted to see what Aaron looked like in the nude, he went to the bathroom to go brush his teeth. By the time he was done, Aaron was already in bed and half-asleep. He climbed into the covers, hoping that tomorrow, everything would be ok.


	12. Night-Night Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call wakes up from a bad dream and falls into a good one.

Call woke up screaming, that night. His first instinct was to turn to Aaron, to reaffirm that the blonde boy laying next to them was real. He brought back his traitorous hand and swung his legs out of bed, not realizing Aaron was awake until Aaron asked him if he was ok. 

“I’m fine.” Call said, shrugging him off.

“Clearly not, or you wouldn’t have been screaming. Do you want to talk about it?” Aaron replied groggily. 

“I’m sorry I woke you up.” Call said, deflecting the question.

“Talking helps, Call, I swear it does. I’m not going to judge you.” Aaron said, sitting up and looking at Call with sympathy.

“I was in Constantine’s gang, and we were doing a raid on an enemy camp. And you were there, for… some reason. And I was killing people. And I… I enjoyed it. They were begging for mercy, but I didn’t stop. And Constantine just… he just smiled and said ‘You’re just like me, Hunt.’ And then, you got shot and… I cracked. I just started shooting random people. I didn’t care anymore. And then I… I… I shot myself, too.” Call swallowed hard, trying to judge Aaron’s expression. It was almost pensive, the way he looked at Call.

“I think you need to blow off some steam. All this being in a gang stuff is getting to your head.” Call ran his hands through his hair, turned away from Aaron, and sighed.

“Yeah, I’ll just go walk past the armed guards at every door and take a leisurely stroll then, shall I?” Call shot back, earning a chuckle from Aaron.

“Ok, ok, I see your point. But there are other ways to blow off steam, you know…” Aaron said, face reddening as he flashed call a grin that made Call’s face heat up.

“What do you mean by that?” Call said, trying not to assume certain facts about Aaron.

“Never mind.” Aaron said, looking at the blankets in front of him.

“No, seriously, now you’ve piqued my interest.” Call said, swinging his legs onto the bed so he could face Aaron.

“Well, It’s just… I’ve been hiding something… about myself. Because it would change things.” Aaron said.

“Ok, well now I’ve really got to know.” Call said, propping his head up with his arms. 

“Call…” Aaron said, shifting his gaze from Call to his fingers, which were fidgeting nervously.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” Call said, winking.

“I-I don’t know if I can tell you.” Aaron said, curling into a ball and trying to bury his face in his knees.

“Ok.” Call said, not trying to hide the dissapointment in his voice.

“ I want to tell you, I swear I do. It’s just…” Aaron said, biting his lip.

“Just…” Call said, echoing Aaron’s words.

“Difficult.” Aaron interjected.

“Ok, I’ll turn around, and you can tell me. Deal?” Call said, turning to face the wall.

“I’m gay.” Aaron said, and Call’s heart just about exploded out of his chest.

“Really?” Call said, turning back to face the now beet-colored Aaron. 

“Um, Yep.” Aaron said, scratching his hair.

“That’s great! I mean, good. That you know, there are no secrets between us. We can, uh, work as a unit. Cohesively.” Call said, cringing with every new word that he spit out trying to avoid the thick silence that was already settling over the room like dust. 

“Ok. Well, I’m going to sleep. That is, unless you want me to move to the floor.” Aaron said, raising his eyebrows in a fashion that reminded Call of Rufus. 

“No, I’m fine, honestly. It doesn’t alter my perception of you whatsoever.” Call said, doing his best to blatantly lie. Aaron still looked dubious, but seemed too tired to argue, so he rolled over and went back to sleep. 

Silence settled over the room, a hazy, dreamy one that clouded Call’s inhibitions and made him want to kiss Aaron then and there. But logic spoke out in the form of Jack. 

Aaron doesn’t like you back. Just because he’s gay doesn’t change anything. You’re worthless, he’s probably only teaming up with you so he can get out of here and be with some other, better boy that isn’t a murderer. Why are you giving up everything for him? You know you could do great things here, save your dad, save everything.m. Constantine has given you his trust, his gang, his help when times were darkest, and you’re betraying him now for a blonde boy that’s out of your league by a mile.

But then, a tiny voice spoke out in Call’s head.

“Or not.” the voice said, and that was good enough for Call. 


	13. A Criminal's Advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call meets with Constantine, who finally lets him know what happened and gives him some very important information. Please comment to endorse my soul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, all your calron dreams will come true! And the chapter after that... ; ) . It's all coming into place, ladies and gents. The plot line will have twists! Turns! And most importantly, some boy x boy feels! Tune in next year for a new update, and thank you to my motivators in the comments section! 
> 
> Finally, my *newly authorized* continuation of friends in low places is out, which is worse than the original, but we're not gonna talk about it.

Call walked into Constantine’s office that day smiling, despite all odds. Training that day had been rough, although he was getting better and better each day. It turned out Call had an affinity for throwing knives, but could barely shoot a rifle, or anything with a lot of bulk, for that matter. It didn’t matter, though, Alex said, because the only reason that Alex taught Call was so he could be prepared in the event a rifle was the only gun around to use. Call hoped he’d never have to use anything he learned here, but he knew deep down that wouldn’t be the case. 

Call was working on a plan, slowly but surely. If he could prove to Constantine that Alex valued family, set Alex up to be next in line, then Alex could help him get out of here. Alex was bound to know everything about this place. He could smuggle them out. But what then? How far would they have to run before he would be safe? And his dad… would he be able to get to him?

Constantine seemed… off today. In his weeks of analyzing the murderous psychopath, Call knew when something was bothering him. And something was  _ definitely _ bothering him _. _

“Uh, hi. Care to tell me what’s troubling you?” Call said, trying to get information of any kind.

“It has occured to me, Call, very recently, that someone dear to me has been wavering in their resolve.” Shit. He wasn’t talking about Call, right?

“Oh?” Call said, tensing up and resisting the urge to unholster his gun.

“It is of little importance, Call. They’ve already been… Dealt with by Joseph. Your first mission is coming up soon. Alex will accompany you, of course, and I will too.” Call breathed a sigh of relief.

“Of course.”

“I have a gift for you, Call. A posession that I have treasured for many years, that I wish to pass on to you.” 

“Thank you.” Call said, mildly curious.

“This knife was made by your mother. She was always in the forge, crafting weapons. The gang was a lot smaller then, mind you. Just me, Alistair, Sarah, Declan, Joseph, of course, and… Jericho. I think it’s finally time to tell you how we all knew each other.” Constantine said, sliding the knife over to Call. It was perfect, Call thought as he examined the blade, testing the balance. More importantly, it was a piece of his mother. He sheaved the knife and tucked it in his boot, and Constantine proceeded to tell him the most absurd story he’d ever heard. The scary thing was, it made sense. 

“You see, it all started with my twin brother, Jericho. We were all fresh out of highschool, none of us could afford, or wanted to, go to college. Alistair had found a job as a mechanic, Sarah was teaching martial arts to children, and her brother Declan was struggling to find work. Joseph and I were doing odd jobs, but Jericho started getting involved with crime. Nothing too serious at first, petty theft, vandalism. Then, of course, he had a great idea, how we could keep our little quintet intact. He found this factory where a gang was set up, they offered him a place. He said that all of us should join. Declan was enthusiastic, Sarah just went along with it. I followed my brother, and Joseph followed me. Alistair… Alistair was always reluctant, but we convinced him in the end, said he could be the getaway driver. Just like the movies... How stupid we were back then. Sarah caught on pretty quickly, Jericho and Joseph followed. It took me a while, and Declan… well Declan never really got it, but they kept him around because of Sarah. Alistair never touched a gun in the 2 years we worked with them. 

There was infighting, and eventually we had to take the original members of the gang out. They wanted to kill Declan, the fucking idiots let Jericho in on it because the fools didn’t know they were dating. Sarah put a bullet between their eyes real fast. They saw Declan as a weak link, but he kept the 5 of us together. We were happy, for a while. Convinced ourselves that the other gangs were the bad guys, we were doing people a favor or some moral bullcrap like that. 

Then, Jericho got greedy. Kept extending the turf, started hurting innocents. We were all numb, by that point. Except Alistair. He loved Sarah too much to speak out about it, though. we did a job, Declan got shot, and Jericho, fool that he was, tried to save his boyfriend. He... didn’t make it out either. It was the four of us, for a while. New members came in, and came out. Sarah changed, after her brother died. I changed. We were a lot closer after that. Pretty soon Alistair drifted away, thought me and Sarah were fucking behind his back, but then you came along. Sarah wanted out, finally. Alistair saw their chance, thought he could have the old Sarah back. They didn’t tell me. Nobody fucking told me. I was on guard duty that night. I thought they were prisoners. You have to understand Call, prisoners can’t get out. Alistair was screaming, but it was too late. They managed to save you. And then, he ran. He thinks it’s your fault, you see. Mine too, but if you hadn’t been born, well…” Constantine 

“She wouldn’t have ran.” Call said with an overwhelming sense of dread. 

“Precisely.” Constantine said. The entire time, he had been completely indifferent. He glazed over his brother’s death as if it were nothing but a minor inconvenience. Call shuddered. He had always thought his mom was the good one, that Alistair was the messed up deadbeat dad whose codependency was his own downfall. He wasn’t sure if the truth was better or worse. 

“Anyway, how was your little escapade with the Stewart boy?” Constantine said, kicking his feet back up on the table. 

“G-good.” Call said, turning red. Call willed his face to stop. 

“I trust you found the… supplies in the drawer under the bed?” Constantine said, grinning ear to ear.

“Y-yup. Um, very handy. Thank you.” Call said, staring at his shoelaces and willing them to suddenly come to life and strangle him so he could escape this conversation.

“The breaking in is always the best part.” Constantine said with a malevolent twinkle in his eye. 

“I, uh…” Call said, not knowing how to respond to the sadistic comment.

“Oh, I can see that you’re madly enamoured with him. I’m sure that no breaking in was required. After all, that boy is head over heels for you.” Call blinked, rapidly. Then he stopped. Then he blinked again.

“I’m sorry, what?” Call said, letting his words sink in.

“Let me try and put it in more modern terms. I believe it’s now ‘down to fuck’.”

“I- Where are you getting this from?” Call said.

“We tapped his phone a while back, before you did the job. I believe the girl he was talking to was ‘Tamira’?”

“Tamara.” Call said, still a little shocked that Aaron wanted to talk to him, much less be interested in him.

“That’s why you were perfect for the job, Call. That boy would do practically anything for you.” Constantine said, amused at Call’s baffled reaction.

“I’m sorry, I have, uh, something to attend to.” Call said.

“Say no more. Oh, and Call?”

“Yes?” Call said, reaching for the door handle.

“I’ve decided to let the Stewart boy in. That is, if you can keep a tight enough leash on him.” Call was shocked, especially with all Constantine’s talk about family. Well, now he knew why. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know, now that he did.

“Thank you, sir.” Call said with genuine thankfulness, a rare occurrence. Maybe, with Aaron by his side, Call wouldn’t have to take chances.


	14. Heels over Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Most days, Call was barely hanging on. But today, everything seemed to fall into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I think we're genuinely wrapping up this storyline. I estimate 5-10 chapters before we finally get our ending. and 2 of those are just gonna be calron.

Call walked into the room, and Aaron looked up at him from a book that Call didn't know existed. Apparently, Aaron had searched his room. Which also meant that he'd probably opened whatever depraved sex-dungeon drawer Constantine hid in his room.

"Hey." Call said, waving sheepishly.

"Hey." Aaron said, brushing his just-barely-too-long-bangs out of his eyes. 

"Um, full disclosure, I have no clue what horrors Constantine hid in this room." Aaron blushed at this, and Call was fairly certain that he'd found 'the drawer' Constantine was referring to.

"Aaron...."

"Yes, Call?" Aaron said, visibly confused.

"I know."

"You know what?"

"I know that you liked me. I know that's why Tamara started the food fight in the cafeteria, that's why you suggested 'other activities', that's the thing that you didn't want me to know, that's why it was awkward earlier when you fell on me." Aaron's jaw tightened, and he stood up to face Call.

"I'm sorry. I didn't tell you because I knew you were straight and it would make things weird and I-" Aaron's eyes swept over Call, and the sadness contained in them was a hit to Call's gut. 

"I'm not." Call said bluntly.

"What do you mean?" Aaron said, sadness turning to curiosity.

"I'm not straight. Well, I haven't really had time to assess that yet what with all the kidnapping and gang shit going on right now. But the point is, Aaron, I like you. Like, a lot." Call said, turning a shade of red which only Aaron could produce. 

"So do you mean that-"Aaron said, dumbstruck.

"Yes." Call replied. And before Call could register what was happening in his head, Aaron had crossed the room, and their lips collided, and he was falling. 


	15. Mine, Mine, Mine.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ALERT: THIS CHAPTER INCLUDES ADULT CONTENT BETWEEN 2 VERY GAY TEENAGERS. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO READ THIS VERY SHORT CHAPTER, CLICK 'NEXT CHAPTER' RIGHT NOW. THIS HAS LITERALLY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLOT. YOU CAN SKIP IT. IT'S KIND OF A BIG DEAL THOUGH. THEY FUCK. THE END. Also tell me if it's bad I wrote this in the wee hours of the morn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is some smut for you who wanted it. At the very end of the book, we're gonna have a Q+A to wrap up any unfinished questions you may have about Call, Aaron, or the world. I may also be persuaded to do a sequel. We're sooo close to 500 hits! That means (unofficially b/c some may be guest duplicates) almost a half thousand people have read my work. This means a lot to me. In a couple weeks, I'm also going to be doings some original content on my Wattpad account, my user is still flakypie if you wanna check me out. That is all.

Call was falling. His senses were obscured by one thing and one thing only: Aaron. Aaron's lips on his lips, Aaron's tongue fighting with his, his hand in Aaron's hair, Aaron's warmth against his chilled skin. He couldn't hear other sounds, could barely discern that his feet were moving towards the bed or that his jacket was on the floor, or that somewhere in this mess both of them had lost their shirts. He kicked off his shoes and socks, falling backwards onto the plush expanse of the bed. He was painfully aware that Aaron's lips had left his so Aaron could go rifle around in 'the drawer'. 

"Call... just how far do you want to go?" Aaron said, green eyes staring through him like only Aaron's could. Call didn't need to think about his answer.

"As far as you'll let me." and in a flash, Aaron had slammed something down on the nightstand and their lips were together again, and Call could smell a musky scent that was so distinctly Aaron it sent a jolt of electricity through him. Aaron's lips left Call's to stain his pale neck red and purple. One particularly sensitive area near Call's jaw made him cry out. Then, Aaron started fumbling with Call's jeans, and after about ten seconds they too joined the array of clothing on the floor. Call was already rock hard, and Aaron was evidently amused by this.

"Well, guess there's no question you like me, huh?" he said, grinning at the tent in Aaron's boxers. 

"Aaron, please." Call murmured, the throbbing of his dick getting almost painful. He heard Aaron's pants slip to the floor, and his heart started racing even faster.

"Please what." Aaron said, breathing into Call's ear. God, of course goody-two-shoes Aaron was a tease. Call wasn't strong enough to hold back what Aaron wanted to hear.

"Fuck me." Call said, barely making a sound.

"What?" Aaron said, smiling sadistically, running his fingers along Call's length, making Call convulse in pleasure. 

"FUCK ME, GOD DAMN IT, AARON!" Call said a bit too loud for his own good. Slowly, too slowly, Aaron reached for the lubricant and applied it.

"This is your first time, yes?" Aaron said dubiously, rearranging himself so he was on top of Call.

"I don't care if you rip my fucking guts out, Aaron, just do it." Call said from below Aaron. 

Aaron entered Call, carefully and gently. Call winced, but it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. In fact, after a few moments, it was amazing. Call moaned louder than he'd intended to.

"Fuck, Call. You're so tight." Call managed to mumble "faster" before pulling Aaron's head down to meet his. Aaron was jerking him off now, in time with Aaron's thrusts. Fuck. Call moaned into Aaron's mouth, and Aaron picked up the pace.

"A-aron, please..." Call said, and Aaron seemed to know what he meant, because he went harder, finally hitting Call's prostate. It felt like Call was on fire, but in the best way possible. 

Finally, Call couldn't take it anymore. He came onto Aaron's stomach, but Aaron was still loving the living daylights out of him. 

"Shit, Call. I think I'm gonna come." Aaron said, gasping for air. Aaron pulled out of Call and came onto his stomach, rolling off of Call and panting. Exhausted, the two fell asleep in each other's arms, both half-wishing the morning would never come. 


	16. Off the Deep End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Constantine goes off the deep end, Call has a panic attack, and Jack comes back stronger than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK OK OK I KNOW PEOPLE I KNOW I'M HORRIBLE BUT I'M HUMAN ALRIGHT?! So here. Take it. My first attempt got deleted so you're gonna have to work with this. Also, give me some ideas. I will take them into account eventually lol.

Call woke up with Aaron's arm wrapped around him. For a while, he lay there, savoring the moment. The events of last night played in his mind on repeat as he edged himself out of bed, looking over at Aaron's sleeping face. Then he looked over at the clock, and realized he had 15 minutes to get to training or god knows what would happen. 

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. A husky voice call assumed was Joseph's called out:

"Constantine says you're done with training. Take the Stewart boy and be at his office in 15 minutes." Shit. If Call was done training, that meant that Constantine would send him on a proper job soon. What did Constantine want with Aaron? Call looked back to the bed, where Aaron was rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 

"Aaron. Constantine wants us to meet him. I don't know why, but he does." Call said, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Ok." Aaron said with the utmost solemnity. Call took a shower, washing last night's events from his body, trying to drown the soreness in water. If Call had to deal with Constantine, he needed a clear head. He wasn't sure if he could have that with Aaron. But he needed to try.

The two of them walked down the corridor in total silence, until Aaron intertwined his fingers in Call's. 

"Together, right?" Aaron asked, green eyes piercing into Call's skull. 

"Together." Call said, trying to sound assertive. 

Call's stomach was churning, the edges of his vision were clouded. His mind was racing through every scenario, few of them good. He kept repeating in his head: "I can't do this. I can't do this." Feelings lurched up from the murky confines of his subconscious, plaguing him with monsters. But Aaron's fingers around his kept him standing, the reassurance that no matter how much he might try and convince himself, he wasn't alone. Some part of him hidden away wasn't a monster, the part Aaron looked to every day for reassurance. He might fail, but he would try to be strong for the both of them.

Finally, after what seemed far to short a walk, they showed up at Constantine's door. Call dropped Aaron's hand to knock, cutting out the warmth of his hand. He couldn't give Constantine anything more over him. He couldn't give Constantine more. The door swung open on the first try, and Call shuddered at the cold feel of the dim room. Constantine gestured to the two chairs in front of his oversized desk, kicking his boots up onto it. Aaron reluctantly sat down, arms crossed in front of his chest. Call sat down at the edge of the seat. Aaron intertwined his foot with Call's and Call didn't have the strength to kick it away. 

"So, what have you boys been up to?" Constantine said with a malicious gleam in his eye. 

"Nothing that would interest you." Aaron said with venom in his voice. Call winced, but Constantine looked more amused than anything. 

"On the contrary, Stewart. Everything interests me. Everything in this place is my domain. _Everything._ " Call's heart accelerated tenfold. Constantine pressed play on his laptop, playing an audio file. 

“I’m gay.” The computer said, relaying Aaron's voice. 

"What the fuck are you-" Aaron growled, slamming his hands on the table.

"Shhhhh." Constantine said, laughing menacingly.

"FUCK ME, GOD DAMN IT, AARON!" Call's voice emmitted from the computer. 

"What kind of twisted bullshit-" Call managed to spit out before Constantine interrupted. 

"Oh, but that's not all, Callum Hunt." Constantine spat.

"But if you think there’s even a chance that I can redeem myself, then we can at least try to make a clean break before Constantine changes his mind and decides to kill us both." Call's voice said unmistakably from the computer.

This time, there was silence.

"Care to explain?" Constantine said.

"Look, I just-" Call said.

"You've been bad, Call. You broke the rules. And when people break the rules, they need to be _punished_. I ask for one thing: loyalty. I treat you as my son, I give you everything you want. I will not stand for this kind of talk amongst my heir, Call. Which is why you need to be taught a lesson."

"Look, I never asked for that. I never asked for ANY OF THIS!" Call said. Jack was lurching up. Call could feel it. He'd pushed back Jack for so long and suddenly jack came flooding back to him and everything was-

**black.**


	17. Say Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack emerges, and Call can't stop it until the damage has been done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK GUYS I'M TRYING SO HARD TO UPDATE BUT I JUST KEEP STARTING NEW FANFICS AND PROCRASTINATING. Less the first one admittedly. But uh, here ya go. This is also completely medically inaccurate. I did NO RESEARCH. Whatsoever. Which admittedly was a bad idea but we're just gonna roll with it. Here's yer angst for all you people who like to suffer.

**black.**

Call was dimly aware of a darkness at the edges of his vision, which was now hazy and almost colorless, as if he were viewing it from a screen rather than from his own eyes. Try as he might, his arms were frozen in their positions. The sounds he heard were almost muffled. He couldn't think straight. He wanted, no, _needed_ to get out. A dark chuckle reminded him that once again, someone else was in control. This had never happened before. Call never wanted it to happen again.

"So, Call..." Constantine said, continuing as if nothing had changed.

"Jack. It's Jack." Constantine looked puzzled for a moment, but shrugged it off.

"Well, whatever you call yourself, you have a... _choice_ to make." Constantine said with a gleam in his eye. Jack looked at Aaron, and Call could tell Aaron sensed something was off. His foot moved away from Jack's, and Call breathed a sign of relief that at least Aaron didn't think Jack was him. Or maybe he did. 

"Bring him in, boys." Constantine said malevolently. Call could feel Jack tense. The door swung open, and Call watched helplessly as the guards marched a shrunken looking man with a bag over his head into the room. Constantine's already wide grin stretched even farther across his face, and Call could tell even Jack was unsettled. Call just hoped whatever test Constantine had set up, Jack felt enough to be able to make a good decision. Constantine motioned with his hand and the bag came off. 

"Dad?" Jack said, obviously shaken. Constantine gestured again, and one of the men holding Alistair grabbed Aaron and restrained him. Aaron was frantically thrashing around, attempting to escape the man's grip.

"What are you doing you psycho! This some sort of psychological torture crap you did to Call? Can't you just accept that he doesn't want to be part of your stupid gang!" Aaron screamed, sneakers scrambling for traction against the smooth, glossy floor. Constantine just laughed.

"I can assure you whatever is wrong with his mind, he did himself. As for being part of my 'stupid' gang, Call _will_ be my successor. He's born for it. Soon, you'll see he'll be just as psycho as me. Do you really think in a few months you'll be anything more than some fuckboy only surviving until he finds something better to plow." Constantine said, almost as if bored.

"It isn't like that." Aaron said, stopping his struggle.

"Shut up, Stewart. Honestly, I don't care what Call does with you. Marry each other for all I care. That isn't why we're here. And why are we here, do you ask? Well, I have a little challenge for you, Mr. Romantic. You can take your gun and shoot your little bride-to-be, or shoot dear old daddums. None of this 'in the leg' bull. You go for the head. A little messy, perhaps, but we can always get a cleaning crew in later. You kill one of them in... twenty minutes let's say, or they _both_ die. And we all get to know what happens when you mess with the Maddens." 

Throughout all of this, Alistair hasn't said a thing. He's limp, motionless, as if hopped up on some cocktail of pills and unaware of anything happening around him. He looks at the floor. Call can feel rage bubbling up inside him. Rage, for everything his father put him through. Rage for pinning his mother's death on Call. Rage for so many years of working his ass off in a shitty apartment for a washed-up husk of a dream. 

"Why me?" Jack asks the silent room, taking his gun into his hand.

"Call, I mean- Jack, we've gone over this before. You're my heir-"

"Not you, douchebag. Him." Jack points to the slumped man in front of him with the gun, who finally draws his head up to meet Call's eyes. 

"How was it ever my fault? How could you leave me ALONE! DEFENSLESS! FATHERLESS! I DID EVERYTHING FOR YOU AND YOU CAN'T EVEN LOOK AT ME WITHOUT SEEING HER DIE, CAN YOU?" Jack is saying the words, but Call is saying them too. 

"Choose your next words carefully, _dad."_ Aaron looks horrified. Alistair looks grim. Constantine is smiling. The world is going to pieces in front of Call's grey, tear-clouded eyes. Finally, Alistair speaks, his voice husky and filled with pain. 

"You're right. You're right about all of it. I should have been there for you, but I wasn't I was paranoid, so I drank to keep it away. On my best days I was half the father I should have been, and I'm sorry, Call. I never wanted any of this for you. Especially not him. God, I would have given anything to do everything over. They've been keeping me here for a- a month at least, and I realized how much I would give just to be a father to-"

This time, the laughter comes from Call. Dark, malevolent, and eerily reminiscent of someone else's. 

  
"You wouldn't give her up, would you? You would rather she had been here and I had never been born in the first place, right? WELL?" His voice settles over the room like a thick layer of dust, the stillness echoing in Call's bones. It's too quiet all of a sudden. 

"Shoot me if you want to, Call. I've lost everything I cared about. This kid deserves to live, even if he's Tony's kid." Alistair says in a resigned voice. Aaron turns paler at the mention of the name. 

"You've lost _everything_ that matters, huh? _Everything_ you've ever cared about, huh?" Click. Call's voice rings out in the silence, saying words Call never wanted to say. The gun is cocked. Call can feel Constantine's eyes on the back of his head. See the fear in his dad's eyes. Jack knows Alistair doesn't want to die. Jack doesn't really care. 

"Call, wait. I need you to know that I l-

 **BANG**.


	18. Darkness Rising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call deals with the consequences of Jack's actions, Aaron reevaluates their relationship, and Constantine accelerates his master plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok guys we got another chapter for ya! Any questions/suggestions, feel free to comment, I reply to all the comments I get so if you have any ideas for the story I'll check them out! Anyway, enjoy!

**BANG.**

Call fell backwards, his bones seeming to lose all rigidity. The gun fell from his hands, clattering against the floor before spinning out and hitting the wall. The next few hours were a murky, glazed, puddle, a haze of gray hues as Constantine's cronies carried him to his room and dragged Aaron away. He stared motionless at the ceiling, thinking of everything, yet nothing. He wanted to scrub today's events from his memory, but he knew that they would always lurk in the back of his consciousness, waiting. 

Call didn't remember falling asleep, yet somehow he woke up. The room was cold, and he wanted to crawl underneath the blankets and just lay there for the rest of time. He couldn't. Reluctantly, Call swung his feet out of bed and rubbed his bleary eyes. Call winced as he made his way to Constantine's office, filled with determination. Had he failed? Maybe Constantine was more evil than even Call could fathom. 

"Jack, good to see you." Constantine said without an ounce of emotion.

"I'm not Jack. I'm Call. It's complicated."

"Is it really, Call? Or are you just scared to admit the truth?" Constantine shot back.

"I don't even know what the truth _is._ " Call admitted after a long pause.

"We're far more alike than you think, Call. I had a similar problem. A 'dark side', if you want to call it that. Even had a name for him... Maugris. But you know what I did, Call? I embraced him. Now, we are one and the same. I am whole."

"You're not. And you're an idiot if you can't see that. My dad may have been a horrible person, but he doesn't have half the crazy you do. Maugris.. or whatever you call it, has taken over. The Enemy isn't Constantine. You aren't Constantine. Constantine died when you shot my mom." Call said, not scared for the first time in a long time. Constantine's eyes glinted darkly.

"I may be twisted, but I am at peace, Call. That night doesn't haunt me, quite the opposite. I did my job. It was Alistair's fault for being an idiot." Constantine said, jaw set, eyes looking through Call and back into that night.

"It sounds to me like you're in denial." Call said, seemingly hitting a nerve. Constantine's stare shoved dagger's all over Call's body, making the hairs on his arms stand up on end. 

"I'm bored, Callum. Let's stop talking about the past. I'm assuming you didn't come here just to interrogate me..." Constantine's eyes searched Call's face. 

"You want something."

"I want you to let my dad go. And I want Aaron to have the choice to leave. No secrets, no tricks. And if they both _stay_ safe... if everyone _stays_ safe, and you can prove it, I'll do whatever you want me to." Call took his mother's knife out of his boot. 

"I have a gun, Call. Gun beats knife. Besides, you kill me and Joseph will kill you and annihilate everything you love. I'll let your dad live in one of the good cells, and likewise with the Stewart boy. But you have no leverage here, Call."

Call pointed the knife at his own throat. "Yes, I do." Constantine laughed.

"So what, you're just gonna kill yourself? What are you trying to accomplish here? You die, then I kill Aaron and your dad anyway. I can get a replacement for you easily, Callum."

"No, you can't. You want someone who thinks like you, who kills like you, who you can mold to be heartless and unwavering. You want Jack, and you want him around forever. And if I die, he dies." Call pushes the knife farther into his neck, feels the metal digging into his flesh, a single drop of blood running down his neck and soaking his shirt. If he presses anymore, he'll bleed out in minutes. There won't be enough time to save him. Constantine stares at Call, and Call has no clue what his next move is. Isn't sure if he can do it, but Call is damn well gonna try. 

"Fine." Constantine says, and more than anything, Call feels relief. Relief the gun jammed. Relief Constantine didn't kill them. Relief that maybe, everything could still turn out alright.


End file.
